New shoes
by supagal
Summary: It is said that before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. Unfortunately for Kakashi and Sakura they end up walking further than a mile.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: Hello there! Another attempt at a Kakashi and Sakura fic. For those who may be reading 'Everyone's talking about it', it is on hold for the moment as I'm going to focus on this story. I will hopefully come back round to it sorry! **

**Anyway on to this story. Basically it's about Kakashi and Sakura going on a mission and having a little mishap, which leaves them swapping bodies and walking a mile in the others shoes. Trust me its better than it sounds, it's an idea that I've had for a while and I thought it would be fun to finally write it down. Don't worry there will be plenty KakaSaku goodness! Anyway read on and review! Also I will hopefully be making these chapters of a decent length, unlike my other stories and this first chapter. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Sakura shifted her weight restlessly in her seat, whilst glancing at the clock for the 5th time in 30 seconds. He was late. Sakura glared at the door, willing her perpetually late sensei to come strolling through it. Why was she stuck with a sensei that was incapable of being on time? Another 5 minutes ticked by before Kakashi made his appearance. Sakura scowled at him, but Kakashi either didn't notice or choose to ignore her.

'Finally, this is getting ridiculous even for you.' Tsunade sighed, putting down her pen before leaning back to observe the two ninja in front of her.

'Well let's get to the point. I'm sending you two on a mission, to escort a lord and his family back to their home country. It shouldn't be too much trouble that's why it only requires the two of you. It should only take a couple of weeks; I expect a full report when you get back. Got it? Good.'

Tsunade gave neither of the people in the room chance to argue, as she dismissed them and resumed working through the mountain of paperwork on her desk. Sakura dazedly followed her sensei out the door.

'What's your excuse this time then?' Sakura asked looking up at the taller man. Kakashi tilted his head towards her slightly.

'Excuse me? I'm not sure what you're on about.'

Sakura raised a knowing eyebrow in response.

'You always have some lame excuse for being late, what was it this time?' Kakashi lifted his head thoughtfully before replying.

'I was helping my elderly neighbor plant some flowers.' Sakura scoffed and swatted Kakashi arm playfully, of course playfully for Sakura was full force for most people. Kakashi staggered slightly before rubbing his arm, and throwing Sakura a hurt look.

'What, you don't believe me?'

'Sensei I've never believed those dumb excuses.' Sakura replied with a matter of fact tone. She heard Kakashi give a soft sigh beside her, and a mumble that sounded suspiciously like, 'Bully.' Sakura allowed her grin to widen, before she ground to a halt.

'So we'll meet at the bridge at 8 tomorrow, and you better not be late.' She emphasized the last part of the sentence, hoping it might finally sink in.

'Why Sakura, I'm renowned for my impeccable time keeping.' And before Sakura could argue he had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

'Impeccable time keeping my ass.' She ground out before make her own way home.

8'o clock rolled around far too quickly for Sakura's liking. She yawned still bleary eyed from sleep, whilst stretching out her arms lazily. After her cat like stretch, she focused her eyes on the road leading to the bridge. He was late. Sakura didn't know why this little factor still bothered her so much. She should know by now that Kakashi was always horribly late. And yet she still crossed her arms angrily, and kicked at the stones under her feet in annoyance. Half an hour after their agreed meeting time, Sakura was still waiting.

'Oh for the love of god, why couldn't he be on time just this once? Why do I always get stuck with the weird ass eccentric teammates? Ino gets a genius strategist and a fairly fat but fairly normal boy. TenTen gets an overachiever and destiny obsessed guy, but at least somewhat socially normal. I get the last Uchia psycho, dead set on killing his brother. The extremely hyperactive demon carrying Hokage obsessed boy and a sensei that can never be on time, and never shows his face!'

Sakura kicked at another stone while finishing her rant.

'You know, I do show my face quite often. You've just never been perceptive enough.'

Sakura froze at the familiar voice of her sensei, before becoming even more infuriated.

'You're late! What's wrong with you, do you have some sort or problem that unables you to be places on time?!'

Kakashi shifted a little on the branch he was on to regard Sakura more closely.

'Speaking of being late, we better get a move on. Honestly Sakura if we hadn't wasted so much time on your ranting and raving, we would nearly be there by now.'

Kakashi jumped down from the tree, his eyebrow raised in amusement at Sakura's outraged face.

Did he honestly just blame her for their lateness? Kakashi chuckled as a fuming Sakura stomped after him, hissing as many insults as she could think of. This was going to be a long journey.

­­­­­­­­­­­­

'You're late.'

Lord Hoshi, as Sakura and Kakashi discovered, was not a patient man. In fact although they were only 5 minuets late, (Sakura had deliberately told Kakashi and earlier time, knowing his annoying habit of never being anywhere on time) he was extremely unimpressed.

'I expect punctuality from all those who work for me, it's a sign of good character.' Hoshi said whilst looking down at Sakura and Kakashi from his carriage.

Sakura sniggered at this; Kakashi obviously had an awful character. This however did not go unnoticed by Kakashi.

'Sorry sir, my teammate here, well you see she has this awful habit of never being on time. It's quite the problem really, I've told her to sort it out, but you know the young these days, no respect.' Kakashi replied cheerfully, before reaching over and ruffling a flabbergasted Sakura's hair.

Lord Hoshi settled his distasteful glare on Sakura.

'As I said, I expect punctuality from all those who work for me. See that it doesn't happen again.' Before Sakura knew it the lord had slammed the carriage door shut, and the procession began rolling away.

'You, You, I can't believe you just did that.' Kakashi turned around to see Sakura glaring at him.

'Did what?' He replied innocently, looking confused. Sakura clenched her fists and stomped toward him. Kakashi winced a little in preparation for the beating he was sure to follow.

'You better sleep with you're eyes open.' Sakura hissed before punching him in the arm, and heatedly walking past him. As soon as she fully passed him Kakashi clutched at his arm.

'Ouch,' He mumbled under his breath, rubbing his abused arm. He lifted his head thoughtfully in Sakura's direction. Kakashi rather quickly decided that the situation must be salvaged, before she really tired to hurt him.

'Sakura'

Sakura refused to look to her side where Kakashi was jogging to catch up.

'Hey slow down, you're like power walking.' Nope. Sakura still refused to look at him.

'Seriously, you should enter a power walking competition, you'd win hands down. You could be "Sakura legs of steel, power walking champion of the world". You could be on the front of cereal boxes.'

Sakura's eye twitched, but she still refused to look at him.

'You know, there's and old lady on my street who power walks, maybe you could power walk with her? And when I say old I mean old, she's like prehistoric, like all old and wrinkly and…'

'Will you just shut up?! I am not a power walker, I will never be a power walker, and I don't care how wrinkly your neighbors are!' Sakura finally snapped, fixing him with one of her best glares. Kakashi looked a bit stunned, and blinked at her a few times before she whirled around to walk again.

After about 5 minuets of silence Sakura could sense that her sensei was going to do something to annoy her. What, she didn't know quite yet.

'So that's a no to the power walking with my neighbor?' Sakura stopped dead in her tracks to stare at Kakashi. Was he stupid?

'What is wrong with you? Why can't you go 10 minuets without finding some way to annoy me? Do you enjoy winding me up?'

Kakashi was just about to respond when Sakura interrupted.

'Wait, don't answer that. Just be quiet and maybe I won't smother you in your sleep.'

Kakashi smiled as he watched her stalk away, he really would have to sleep with his eyes open for the next few days.

'Alright, we are setting up camp for the night here, is that alright?' The servant asked politely, but Kakashi got the impression it wasn't debatable.

'I don't see why not.' The servant flashed a civil smile before hurrying away. Kakashi slipped the tent of his back pack, and let it land on the ground with a dull thud. He stole a quick glance and the gloomy girl sitting on a log, still looking mildly angry about something.

'Sakura, why don't you go see what food they have for us?'

Sakura sighed as she slid off the rock, before trudging toward the expanse of tents and carriages. It didn't take long for her to find the food tent; chefs were bustling about busy trying to prepare dinner for the lord and his family. Sakura barely had time to look at the delicious looking food, before she had two pots of instant noodles thrust in her direction.

'Hot water is back in the direction you came from.'

Sakura regarded the stout man who had just shoved tremendously bland looking noodles at her.

'Erm thanks.'

Giving one last despairing glance at the mouthwatering food, she shuffled back towards the hot water. Of course luck wasn't on her side; a small queue had already formed at the hot water station. She joined the back and glanced unimpressed around the campsite. Her eyes snapped into focus when she saw a young girl staring up at the sky.

Sakura guessed she was around the same age as her, 16 maybe a little older, 17 perhaps. She had long, straight brunette hair that tumbled to just under her shoulder blades. She was well dressed, and standing at the back of a carriage, from this Sakura decided she must be lord Hoshi's daughter. Suddenly Lord Hoshi himself appeared from the carriage, and began to yell at her. Sakura watched as the girl was ordered back into the carriage being followed by a rather red faced Hoshi.

'Excuse me? Are you planning on using the hot water or just staring off into space?'

Sakura snapped out of her reverie, and turned to see about ten irritated faces looking back at her.

'Oh right, sorry,' she replied sheepishly before filling the two noodle pots.

'There you are, my poor stomach was beginning to eat itself.' Kakashi patted his stomach as if to emphasis his point.

'Poor you, be glad I didn't drop yours on purpose after what you did to me.'

Kakashi smiled in response as he grabbed the noodles from Sakura's outstretched arm. He pushed his chopsticks around a bit, carefully scrutinizing his suspiciously gray meal before wrinkling his nose.

'On second thoughts, maybe I'm not as hungry as I thought.'

Sakura had a similar reaction to her food.

'Blurgh, this isn't food, I sure it's alive.' She moaned stirring the gray, limp noodles.

'I'm convinced mine just winked at me.'

'Maybe you're hallucinating because you're so hungry?' Sakura replied in a feeble attempt to make Kakashi, eat the food she had trekked over the camp for.

'I suppose it's better than nothing.' Kakashi grumbled, reaching for his mask before sharply tugging it down. At this point Sakura chocked. Kakashi looked over at the spluttering girl with mild confusion.

'Surely it's not that bad is it?' Kakashi questioned whilst cautiously testing his food.

'You, you've taken your mask off!' Sakura squeaked still in visible shock. At that moment a baffled expression spread on Kakashi's now bare face.

'For all these years I've known you, I've _never _seen you're face. And now just like that, you take off your mask like it's nothing!'

Then Sakura saw something highly intriguing, so very novel and just astonishing. Kakashi's smile. It made her forget her words, and her heart to leap just that little bit.

'Well like I said before I do show my face quite often, you were just never in the right places at the right time.' Kakashi replied smoothly, still smiling that seemingly perfect smile.

Sakura was captivated. She had never seen a smile like Kakashi's. It was carefree, unrestrained and totally unique. She suddenly felt particularly important, like she had just been told some great secret. She was the only one on her team to see this rare glimpse of unadulterated emotion, and it made her feel special. A soft smile played at Sakura's lips as she thought of this.

'Erm, hello? I'm getting kind of nervous, having you just staring at me.'

Sakura snapped back to reality with a jolt.

'Oh right. Sorry.' Sakura gushed trying to, and failing to conceal her embarrassment. Kakashi's smile grew into a grin, and Sakura dipped her head trying to seem interested in her noodles, to hide her rapidly reddening face.

After dinner, there didn't appear to be much else to do. Kakashi and Sakura played a few rounds of I spy, which quickly dissolved into a fight after Sakura accused Kakashi of cheating.

'It's getting late. We should turn in.'

'Not it's not.'

'True, but I'm bored and it's getting cold. Plus I don't want you complaining about you're lack of beauty sleep.'

Sakura sighed in response, as she watched Kakashi walk towards their tent. The breeze rustled passed her, and she shivered at the bitter change in temperature.

'Fine, sleep has got to be more interesting than this.' She muttered before making her own way to the tent.

When Sakura was just starting on her journey to become a ninja, she discovered very quickly that she had rather irritable teammates when it came to settling down to sleep. Naruto would shuffle about as much as humanly possible and snore like a wild pig. Saskue wouldn't snore, but instead breathe heavily which was equally as annoying. Sakura would always find herself desperately trying to fall asleep before them, to avoid the constant noise they made. Kakashi however was always silent. Even this irrationally annoyed Sakura, she could never work out if he was still asleep or actually awake.

'Kakashi, why do you wear a mask?'

Kakashi's eyes slid open as he thought over her question.

'Habit' He replied evenly. Both were quiet for another few minuets before Sakura piped up again.

'Ok, why did you start wearing a mask?'

'Ah, I don't really know.' Kakashi replied noncommittally.

'Yes you do.' Sakura answered half way through a yawn. Both were very quite for a long time, and just as Sakura felt herself drifting she heard Kakashi sleepy reply.

'I guess it will jus have to remain one of life's great mysteries.'

Sakura agreed with him in her head before slipping into a comfortable sleep. Kakashi sighed next to her, a slight smile tugging at his lips as he too let himself succumb to sleep. Yes this was definitely going to be a long journey.

**Review! Please and thank you. **


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

Sakura grumbled as she rolled to the side, desperately trying to cling onto sleep. She gave one last frustrated sigh before sitting up, accepting that sleep was out of reach. The tent was empty as Sakura shuffled her way to the entrance. 

Kakashi turned as he heard the zipper of the tent behind him. A rather disgruntled Sakura came into view yawning.

'Morning sunshine.' He called, far too cheerfully in Sakura's opinion.

She never was a morning person, and instantly took a disliking to anyone who was.

'Is there anything to eat?' She muttered voice still rough from sleep. Kakashi pointed to the toast he had scavenged to find, and Sakura quickly devoured it.

'Easy now don't inhale your food or you'll...' Before Kakashi had the chance to finish his sentence Sakura began to sputter and cough.

'Chock' He finished before going to pat her back.

Sakura gasped for air, inwardly cursing the toast. After a few minutes the toast had gone down and Sakura was steadying her breath with Kakashi still rubbing her back. She forgot she just almost died due to a piece of bread, and allowed the warm feeling of Kakashi's hand to sooth her. It wasn't till she felt her eyes drifting that she moved away mumbling a thank you.

'Deary me, didn't your mother ever tell you to chew your food?' Kakashi asked moving to take the tent down.

'Didn't your mother ever teach you not to be a smartass?' Sakura retorted glaring at the rest of her breakfast. She heard Kakashi chuckle adding to her irritation. Viciously chewing on the rest of her toast she stomped off to get washed and dressed. It didn't take long for her to reach the staff wash tent.

'Well isn't this glamorous.' She hissed looking at the muddy tent with basic water supplies.

Although Sakura was used to washing in rivers and pathetic excused for wash tents, she never did get used to how cold water felt first thing in the morning. She shivered and let out a squeak as she splashed the water over her face. With her eyes still closed she fumbled around for her towel with little success.

'For god sake,' she growled, her search becoming increasingly more frantic. Until she felt something soft being placed in her hand.

'Here.'

Sakura dabbed the towel around her face, offering a muffled thank you. She opened her eyes and took in the girl before her. Her thought process stopped. It was the girl. Lord Hoshi's daughter. The girl smiled expectantly at Sakura, who was gawking at her as if she had three heads.

'No problem, you looked like you needed a hand.' Sakura took in her well spoken smooth voice.

'Oh yeah thanks, I always manage to lose my towel.' Sakura replied as she snapped out of her daze. The girls smile widened, and she seemed as fascinated with Sakura as she was with her.

'Oh I'm sorry, my name is Sakura. If there is anything you need please don't hesitate to ask.' Sakura gushed remembering this was in fact one of the clients.

'Hello Sakura. My name is Airi, pleased to meet you.' Airi replied politely. Sakura fidgeted under the girl's constant smile, and couldn't help but wonder what she was doing there.

'Erm, do you mind me asking why you are not with the carriages? I'm sure it'll be safer there.' As soon as Sakura mentioned the carriages Airi's smile vanished.

'I hate the carriages; I don't like being cooped up.' Airi spat stomping her foot. Sakura gave her an unimpressed look; it seemed the Airi was going to be just like all the other lords daughters she knew. A brat.

'I understand it must be boring but it's more for your safety than…'

'I don't care! I don't need you protecting me, I can look after myself!' Airi yelled, pouting even more. Sakura was ready to rip the powder puffs head off, but she grit her teeth and controlled herself.

'I don't think you understand, I was hired to protect you and that's what I'm going to do so if…'

'You don't look like you could protect yourself, never mind me! You're just some silly girl who likes to pretend she's tough.'

Well that was the straw that broke the camels back. Sakura's eye twitched and she took a dangerous step towards Airi.

'Look here you spoilt brat. I don't spend all my time training and working my ass off, to be told by some dozy drama queen that I can't look after myself! Now I think we both know that it would be best if you scuttle back to your ridiculously over priced carriage!'

Airi shrank back from Sakura's waving fists, a deeply shocked look on her face. Both girls looked about ready to pounce on each other, when Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder.

'Now now ladies, I'm sure this can be worked out calmly.'

Sakura glared up at Kakashi as he tightened his grip on her shoulder, warning her to settle down.

'I'm sorry Miss Airi was it?' Kakashi asked Airi who now looked spellbound. She nodded faintly still in a daze.

'I'm sorry about my teammate here; she's a little grumpy in the mornings.' Kakashi apologized smoothly.

Airi nodded again, still captivated by Kakashi. Sakura crossed her arms huffily, and after another persuasive squeeze of her shoulder, mumbled an apology.

'Good. Now that's sorted out I think its time you returned to your carriage Miss Airi, don't you?' Kakashi said as he began to steer Sakura away by the shoulders.

Airi agreed quietly and began to regally walk back to the line of carriages. Sakura glared over her shoulder at the girl and allowed her scowl to deepen.

'If the wind changes your face will stay like that.' Kakashi warned in a bored tone.

'I hate girls like her.' Sakura hissed, still allowing Kakashi to guide her.

'What rich?'

'No, girls who make judgments about people they don't know, and automatically think their better than you because of their lifestyle.' Sakura growled kicking at a wayward stone.

Kakashi winced in sympathy for the rock, and hoped her anger wouldn't turn on him. He knew how she felt, he also felt that ninja were far too often seen as the 'help', and not taken as seriously as they should be. However, he also knew that the people who saw ninja as such supplied his pay check.

'Don't let it get to you.' He offered letting his hands slip from her shoulders back down to his sides. Sakura let out a large sigh, in what he assumed as an attempt to release some anger.

'I know, I know. Anyways, how much further till were rid of the pompous twit and his dysfunctional family?' Sakura knew she had made a grievous error as soon as she looked at Kakashi, his face subtly telling her to shut up. A chill ran through Sakura, and she mentally groaned, '_please don't tell me he's behind me…'_ She turned slowly and took in the red face of Lord Hoshi.

'Oh, Lord Hoshi! Erm what a surprise! I thought you would be in the carriages with your family, not slumming it with us.'

Sakura laughed nervously, knowing she was making matters worse. Why was when she opened her mouth she seemed to successfully place her foot in it?

'Don't worry Miss Haruno, the pompous twit will be returning to his dysfunctional family now, please continue with your conversation.' Hoshi spat whilst storming past Sakura. He stopped and looked at Kakashi who was sporting a rather amused look.

'You'd do well to teach her to control her mouth.' He warned before thundering into the distance. Sakura slapped her hand over her eyes, and sat down on the ground. Unbelievable, she was already having an awful day, and it wasn't even 9'o clock.

'Why didn't you say something?' She asked weakly shaking her head, with her eyes still covered.

'I didn't know you were going to say something stupid.' Kakashi replied laughing.

'Yes you did.' She accused.

'Ok, maybe I did, but you have to admit it was pretty funny.' Kakashi stooped down in front of the downhearted girl.

'Yeah, funny for you!' She moaned feebly. Kakashi's smile widened as he grabbed her arms and pulled her up.

'Come on we better get going.'

Sakura glanced distastefully at the entourage ahead of her and began to numbly follow Kakashi. Could this day get any worse?

* * *

Apparently the day could get worse. After only about 10 minutes of walking the heavens opened, and a steady downpour of rain began to lash down at the earth. Sakura flicked her fringe out of her eyes, and squinted in an attempt to see the road better. Kakashi wasn't fairing much better, and was silently cursing the clouds. Sakura made her way quickly through the puddles to catch up. 

'How much longer till we get to the next town?' She called above the rain and wind. A drenched Kakashi looked ahead thoughtfully.

'Not long.' He assured.

Sakura let out a whiney noise in desperation. The rain water was making her clothes heavy, and every now and then her feet would drag along the ground making her to stumble. Although she had managed to catch herself so far, luck didn't seem to be on her side today. She felt herself stumble again; unfortunately a rock blocked her recovery. Sakura let out a squeak as she saw herself falling to the ground. She felt Kakashi grab her elbow, in an attempt to stop her plunging head first into the large puddle in front of her. Luck it would seem was not on Kakashi's side either.

His foot slipped on the mud and both he and Sakura slid into the obscenely large puddle. Sakura let out a small shriek as the cold water engulfed her lower half. Kakashi looked equally startled as he sat in the muddy puddle.

'This can't be happening!' Sakura shouted, slapping her fists across the surface of the water.

'Well, that doesn't really do much for our stealthy, graceful ninja image does it?' Kakashi remarked, wiping mud away from his face.

He held a hand to Sakura and tried to pull both of them up. This resulted in them both sliding back into the puddle, in a bigger heap than before. Sakura let her head fall back in despair, prepared to wallow in her misery when she heard Kakashi chuckling.

'What's so funny?' She grumbled splashing a bit in anger.

'Well, its one of those moments where you either laugh or cry.' He explained giving her a grin beneath his mask. She regarded him stonily.

'I think I'll cry thanks.'

Sakura began to ready herself to crawl out of the puddle when an unexpected mud pie splattered her in the face. Her mouth hung open in disbelief. He did not jus throw mud at her. A glance to Kakashi out the corner of her eye confirmed that he had. He was grinning like and idiot, with another clump of mud ready in his hand.

'You dare.' Sakura warned with as much of a threatening tone as she could muster. Kakashi didn't take long digesting the threat, and the second clump of mud connected with Sakura's cheek with a splat.

'That's it.' She growled and began to hurl mud back at him.

The mud war soon turned into more of a wrestling match, which both of them trying to rub mud in the others faces. Although she had begun the game with vicious intent, Sakura found herself laughing along with Kakashi.

'Ahem'

A loud, deliberate cough drew both Sakura and Kakashi's attention to a very angry looking lord Hoshi. He was stood on the step on a carriage, up and out of the mud, with a meek looking servant holding a large umbrella over his head. Sakura could feel the hatred rolling off him, and heading straight for her.

'Miss Haruno, are deliberately thinking of ways to annoy me?' He asked with a restrained tone. Sakura tried to think of something sensible to say.

'No sir it just sort of happens.'

That apparently was not a sensible thing to say. Hoshi's eyes bulged and he became even redder.

'Sir, don't blame Sakura. It was my fault I started it.' Kakashi finally piped in.

Seems he wasn't willing to let her take all the blame to save his own hide. Hoshi's glare leveled on a muddy Kakashi, before snapping back to Sakura.

'This is why I believe women shouldn't be ninja. They are only needless distractions for men. See that you actually do your jobs from now on.'

And with that Lord Hoshi spun on his heal, and back into the carriage. The line began to move again and both Kakashi and Sakura crawled back to their feet.

'I can't believe he just implied that all I do is distract you. If anything it's the other way round.' Sakura grumbled, trying to remove the large mud clumps from her hair.

'Me? Distract you?' He replied with mock surprise.

Sakura decided to let the comment slide and concentrated on her footing. She wasn't really focused on Kakashi's remarks, as right at that moment something truly wonderful came into view. A town. Sakura allowed herself to smile in relief. A town meant an inn. An inn meant a nice hot shower. An inn meant a comfortable bed. A bed meant fluffy pillows. And fluffy pillows meant sleep. Sakura was getting giddy just thinking about it.

'Thank the lord.'

* * *

'I call first shower!' Sakura proclaimed as she tried to barrel past Kakashi. 

'Oh no you don't.'

Kakashi grabbed Sakura's arm and attempted to push past her. At this point Sakura brutally stomped on Kakashi's foot, forcing him to release her. She sprinted to the bathroom door, victory in sight. Her fingers griped the doorframe when she felt Kakashi's hand clasp around her foot.

'Let go of me!' She grunted in effort, desperately trying to shake him off. His grip however tightened if possible.

'I'll kick you in the head!' She warned shaking he foot with more vigor. Kakashi it seemed was either unafraid of her threats, or too stupid to take heed of them. If she wanted to win this she would have to be sneaky.

'Ah my ankle!' She cried collapsing in a heap on the floor. Kakashi sprang up in concern, releasing her foot.

'I'm sorry, I didn't…'

Kakashi only caught a quick glimpse of the mischievous smirk that graced her features, before the bathroom door slammed in his face. He stared confused at the door before he heard a triumphant call.

'I win sensei!'

Sakura smirked to herself in the mirror, feeling unbelievably proud of herself, before beginning to peel off the mud caked clothing. After scrubbing herself clean, and throwing on the most comfortably clothes she has, she strolled into the bedroom wanting to crawl into the warmth of the bed. She gave sideways glance and the mud splattered Kakashi, who was sitting patiently in a chair, before sauntering towards the bed.

'Bathrooms free.' She stated smugly before burrowing into the covers.

'Cheat.' Was Kakashi's only reply as he went to the bathroom.

Sakura sighed contently; finally happy she was in a warm bed. She could hear the rain pattering against the window, and the constant hum of the shower water. She was dozing blissfully when she heard the bathroom door open. She cracked open her eyes to see Kakashi stepping out of the bathroom with steam curling around the doorframe. Sakura's heat rate almost doubled. He was maskless and topless. She could feel her mouth begin to water just from the sight of him. _Phowar_ was the only thought running through her head. Kakashi reached for his shirt and Sakura gave herself a firm shake, expelling her previous feelings.

She put it down to being tired, and in her mind being a seventeen year old spinster. She closed her eyes again trying to will herself into sleep, and to forget about her annoying, eccentric yet somehow hot sensei. She felt the place on the bed next to her dip and mentally groaned when her heart skipped a beat. _Stop it _she told herself firmly closing her eyes and letting sleep drag her under.

* * *

Sakura hated nightmares. Her most hated one was also her most frequent one. She sprang upright in the bed, breathing heavily after the jarring feeling of almost falling. The falling off a cliff dream was shared by many others, but it seemed to take delight in taunting Sakura. She almost jumped of the bed when she felt a hand on her shoulder. 

'Are you alright?' Kakashi's voice was gravelly, testament to the fact that he had just woken up.

Sakura struggled to regain her voice and nodded at him instead. Kakashi's hand was still on her shoulder and she relished in the warmth of it.

'Try and get some sleep.' He said simply, applying some pressure on her shoulder to get her to lie back down.

She complied silently, steadying her breath still concentrating on his hand. She tried to not feel too disappointed when he removed his hand and left a distance between them. She knew that she should be denying the fact that she was bothered by this, but she was simply too tired to care. She just hoped she didn't try and jump him in his sleep.

Sakura yawned loudly as they began on their journey the next day. She couldn't help but feel she hadn't had enough sleep. Whether this was due to her ominous dream of falling, or simply because having Kakashi sleep near her affected her more than she wished to admit, she didn't know. She stole a glance at Kakashi offering a sleepy smile, but he wasn't focused on her. He seemed distracted, as if he was straining to hear or see something.

She knew this kind of Kakashi. He had a bad feeling, or a notion that something bad was about to happen.

'What's wrong?' She questioned nervously. She watched him shiftily check his surroundings before answering.

'I'm not sure yet. Something's not right. Stay on your toes.'

Sakura nodded suddenly filled with resolve. Despite Kakashi's feelings of impending doom, the morning was relatively boring. With the only slightly dangerous situation was Kakashi being attacked by a bee. And by the time the lunch break rolled around Sakura was feeling well and truly bored.

'I'm going to go have a look around. Stay here and stay alert.' Kakashi said as he rounded the carriages.

Sakura waved slightly before indulging in the gray noodles. As time went on she got the distinct feeling she was being watched. She tried to focus in on her surroundings, to pin point the feeling on unease.

'Hey there.'

Sakura's attention snapped to the young girl in front of her. Oh great Airi again.

'Can I help you miss?' Sakura asked sarcastically, whilst swirling her noodles.

'I like your sensei. He seems like a nice guy, don't you think?' She replied staring in the direction Kakashi had left in. Sakura felt a distinct twinge of emotion she couldn't quite place.

'Yeah he's alright as sensei's go.' Sakura answered. She glimpsed at Airi, and saw the girl was fidgeting with her hands and shuffling her feet. She mumbled something that Sakura couldn't quite make out.

'I'm sorry what was that?' She queried.

'I said I'm sorry ok?' Airi blurted still shuffling her feet. Sakura smirked and sat back to wait and hear what she had to say for herself.

'I didn't really mean your weak, I was talking about myself.' She admitted looking downhearted.

Sakura recoiled in surprise, feeling a sort of understanding for the girl. For most of her life Sakura had felt insignificant next to Naruto and Saskue, and she knew that feeling of frustration at her own short comings.

'What makes you think you're weak?'

Airi looked down at Sakura thoughtfully tapping her foot slightly.

'Everyone is always doing things for me. I feel like I can never achieve anything for myself, my father never lets me it's as if he sees me as incapable of anything. What use am I if I can't look after myself?' She grumbled with blatant frustration. Sakura smiled genuinely before answering.

'I know that feeling; I used to feel it everyday. But I got to a point where I stopped feeling sorry for myself and decided to do something about it.'

Airi took her time processing this, chewing on her lip as she mulled over Sakura's words.

'But my father, he would never let me…'

'Nobody has a right to make you feel inadequate, not even your father.' Sakura replied firmly.

'I'd give anything to be more like you, to be independent and strong.' Airi said longingly, as Sakura sat happily taking in her compliments.

'You can be, just stand up for yourself a bit more. I know it takes a lot of courage, but when you finally take a stand people will take you seriously.' She encouraged.

'Really?'

'It worked for me, why not you too?'

Airi stared in disbelief at Sakura. In all her life a girl she had only know for two days had just shown her the most support she had ever received, and she was grateful for it.

'I think I'll give it a go, thank you.'

Sakura beamed feeling self satisfied.

'No problem!'

It was then that disaster almost struck. The kunai whizzed past Sakura's nose as she threw herself backwards. Her hand was at her hip, grabbing for her own kunai when the ninja appeared in front of her. Time seemed to stop as she saw the man before her poised and ready to drive his kunai through her. And just as Sakura was thinking _this is it_ Kakashi emerged between them.

The clang of metal ran through her, as her sensei and some unknown ninja fought a few feet before her.

'Sakura protect the carriages!'

Sakura jumped to her feet yelling for the carriages to get moving. As the procession began stumbling away another ninja came into view. Sakura didn't have to think this time, and kicked into action before the enemy nin had a chance to attack. He was skilled, with each kick and punch Sakura felt herself being pushed further back to the direction she came from. She needed a plan and quick. Just when she thought the situation couldn't get any worse, she saw the carriages grind to a halt.

'Keep going!' Sakura screamed whilst avoiding a kick aimed for her gut.

'I'm afraid that won't be happening.' A mans voice stated calmly.

Sakura snapped her head around to the man at her side. He was tall and broad, but more importantly he had Airi by her hair.

'I'm sorry,' Airi cried weakly, wincing in pain as the mans grip tightened. Sakura's eyes narrowed in distaste.

'Let her go.'

The man laughed in response. It was a harsh cruel sound and only added to Sakura's dislike of him.

'I'm afraid I can't do that.' He answered before continuing laughing. Sakura could feel the anger bubbling inside her.

'I'm afraid you will, or you'll end up like you friend over there.' Kakashi called lazily whilst leaning on the side on a carriage looking for too calm.

Sakura rolled her eyes and was dying to yell show off, but some how she thought it wasn't the right time. The mans laughter swiftly died as he took in the sight of his recently deceased teammate.

'You'll pay for that.' He said darkly glowering at Kakashi.

'Calm down Hibiki, you knew his usefulness would run out eventually.'

Sakura jumped as a woman appeared next to her, she was tall and slender with blonde hair and piercing eyes. She breezed past Sakura and walked purposefully towards Kakashi.

'Besides, we aren't here to fight the infamous copy ninja, that would just be silly wouldn't it?'

She was sizing Kakashi up like a predator and Sakura felt that twinge of emotion from before.

'If you don't want a fight, give back the girl.' Kakashi replied evenly ignoring the hungry looks from their new enemy.

She pouted at Kakashi's response and sauntered back to the man known as Hibiki, and Airi.

'We only want the girl, trust me we'd take good care of her.' Her tone was as far away as trustworthy as you could get, and Sakura gritted her teeth as she swept some of Airi's hair out of her face.

'Sorry I can't take that chance.' Kakashi said before moving faster than Sakura's eyes could follow, and quickly immobilizing the ninja Sakura had been fighting before.

'Takara, we have the girl let's go!' Hibiki yelled tugging Airi along with him.

'Alright! Sorry guess we don't have time to stay and chat.' Takara smiled before taking after Hibiki.

Sakura and Kakashi both sprang into action, Kakashi blocking Hibiki and Sakura stalling Takara.

'Little girl I don't have time for this, move!' Takara shrieked as she found her path blocked.

'No chance.' Was all Sakura said before launching herself at her.

All she had to do was stall for time, to allow Kakashi to get Airi. She viciously swung at Takara, hoping for any kind of glancing blow, with her chakra charged fists that's all she'd need. But Takara was surprisingly nimble, and was with some difficulty avoiding Sakura's fists. Every now and then she looked over at Kakashi to see him wearing down Hibiki, who was finding it extremely difficult to abduct Airi, and defend himself against Kakashi at the same time.

Kakashi threw once last kick at Hibiki's arm, and it was enough to relinquish his grip on Airi.

'Sakura, I got her!' Kakashi shouted trying to put distance between him and Hibiki.

This was the only signal she needed; all they needed now was a clean get away. Sakura skidded to a halt just as the last carriage rumbled past; she lifted her chakra laden fist in preparation for smashing it into the ground.

'Takara, the jutsu! Use it now!' Hibiki roared.

Kakashi barely caught sight of the hand signs just before Sakura's fist connected with the ground, he leapt up and raced towards her, if that jutsu had got through she could need help. The earth ripped up, creating a wall effect between her and Kakashi, and the two enemy ninja. Sakura felt woozy and light headed, the world blackened around her as she fell to the floor. She heard Kakashi's heavy foot falls slow next to her and then a dull thus, was he dizzy too?

Her vision returned to her slowly, and the dizziness faded. Although she no longer felt physically ill, she did feel strange. She lifted her head up and almost had heart failure from looking at the person next to her. For the person next to her was _her._ Her counterpart was looking as horrified as she was, and it was only then she noticed her left eye was covered, that she was wearing a jonin uniform and suddenly had longer legs than she remembered. Sakura did what any normal girl would do.

She screamed.

* * *

**Right there we go, second chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. As always please read and review. Thanks! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Sakura couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, all she could manage was a strangled scream. She scrunched her eyes closed and the opened them again, screaming when she could still she herself not caring that the voice was far too low and foreign. 

'Can you quit screaming?!' She heard herself yell.

She couldn't believe this was happening, in fact she refused to.

'What happened?' She asked fearfully, shocking herself at the deep voice that fell from her lips. She watched herself slowly get to her feet, and regarding each extremity with a strange curiosity.

'It seems we've switched bodies.'

Sakura almost died. Even though the proof was standing there in front of her she refused to believe it.

'How are you so calm about this?' She rasped waving her newly acquired long arms at herself.

'Sakura please it's painful to hear me speaking like that.' Kakashi sighed, slouching in defeat.

'Oh well I'm sorry if I'm just a little bit upset and…hey stand up straight don't slouch my body like that, its so manish!' Sakura berated before trying to stand.

She felt like a baby giraffe trying to walk for the first time. She wobbled slightly, pushing her hands out and taking a moment to steady herself.

'Geez how lanky are you?' She asked looking down at her new legs. She saw Kakashi raise a pink eyebrow in annoyance, quirking his lips into a frown.

'How short are you?' He shot back. Sakura glared in response as she tried to cover the shock of hearing Kakashi's comebacks in her voice.

She couldn't get her head around it; she had swapped bodies with her sensei, but not any sensei, her male sensei.

'How do we change back?' She growled, liking how much more threatening her voice sounded. Kakashi looked to the side, now that he was in her body she could read him easily, she knew her own expressions after all. And she knew this expression well. He was clueless.

'You don't know do you?' She asked already knowing the answer.

'Erm, well not exactly.' He replied sheepishly.

Sakura dropped her head in dismay, allowing her fingers to clutch at the silver locks.

'This can't be happening.' She mumbled shaking her head.

A few seconds later a pair of feet appeared in front of her vision. She took a brief moment to admire her shoes before lifting her gaze to Kakashi's. She found it extremely weird looking down at herself.

'Sakura, I promise it's going to be ok. Look lets just finish the mission and get back, Tsunade will know what to do.' Kakashi reassured

'Do I always sound that cheesy when I'm reassuring people, or is it just because you're using my voice?' She asked smiling slightly when she saw Kakashi unleash her grin.

'Come on, the sooner we get this family home the sooner we can get back to normal.' He said turning and making his way back to the carriages. Sakura cringed at her bodies retreating form.

'Ick, do you have to walk like that?'

* * *

'Are you ok?' Kakashi asked Airi whilst helping her to her feet. 

'Yeah thanks Sakura.' She answered.

'What?' Sakura asked, as she walked in on time to hear her name. Airi looked puzzled as she regarded Kakashi's form.

'I was just thanking Sakura. Thanks are in order to you also Kakashi.' She beamed. Her smile faded as she watched what she thought was Kakashi giving her a strange look.

'I'm not Kakashi.'

It was now Airi's turn to dish out the strange looks.

'Right, did you hit your head in that fight or something?' She asked quirking her eyebrows. A sigh beside her gained her attention.

'I'm afraid she's right, I'm Kakashi.'

Airi's pretty face became wrinkled in confusion as she looked back and forth between Sakura and Kakashi.

'So you're saying that you switched bodies?' Airi finally asked still looking thoroughly confused. Beside her Kakashi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

'Is that proof enough for you? I never pinch at my nose, only old worry wart does that when he's stressed.' Sakura explained whilst she inspected her new silver locks.

'Kakashi you have some major split ends going on here.' She commented as she closely regarded individual strands.

'Sorry?' Kakashi offered in annoyance flicking at his own now pink hair.

'You should be I have to walk around with this hair now.' Sakura replied huffily, inwardly chuckling at the sound of Kakashi's voice in a huffy tone. Airi looked horrified at the scene unfolding before her; she couldn't help but feel responsible.

'Oh no, this is all my fault.' She muttered sadly.

'Don't be silly you didn't do this to us.' Sakura replied waving a hand lazily. Airi didn't seem convinced and looked even more downtrodden.

'No you don't understand, I think Takara intended this to happen with me and her.' She explained slowly, fearful to look at either Kakashi or Sakura.

'Now that you mention it, I did see her make some hand signs just before you created that barrier.' Kakashi said to Sakura who was looking stunned.

'Hang on you mean a jutsu is the reason for this?' She questioned, Kakashi nodded back.

'Oh thank god! That means this mess can be fixed right? I mean Tsunade can fix it can't she?' Sakura asked excitedly, unfolding long arms and waving them slightly.

'Hopefully.' Kakashi responded pushing the chin length hair behind his ear.

'Look lets just concentrate on getting Airi and her family back home, its not far now anyway, then we can focus on getting back to ourselves.'

Kakashi said before pushing off the wall and giving a despairing glance at his body, which was now smiling like a loon and threatened to let out a squeal of delight.

'Wait! I wouldn't tell my father about your switch, he won't understand and will most likely think your trying to mock him.' Airi warned getting herself to her feet.

'You mean not only do I have to look like you I have to act like you as well?' Sakura grumbled at her passing form.

'You know what clever idea Sakura; keep insulting the person who everyone thinks is you. Smart move.' Kakashi said sweetly as he trotted past her.

Sakura's expression turned bleak, she was never going to live this down.

* * *

One advantage (that Sakura discovered quickly) of being in Kakashi's body was his height. Not only did it seem to command respect from all those around her, she also found keeping up with the carriages much easier. Instead of shuffling along like usual in an attempt to keep up, she found her self striding out and easily matching the pace. She wondered how Kakashi was fairing with his new loss in height. 

Kakashi was not impressed. He hadn't been this short since he was 15, he miserably remembered when he was younger and all the other jonin had towered over him. He had been immensely happy when he grew to the grand height of 6'1, but now finding himself back at 5'7 he felt as though all the years of waiting, and enduring growing pains were wasted. He quickened his step to catch up with Sakura, who seemed to be enjoying the walk a little too much.

'Are you humming?' He asked weakly. Sakura cocked her head to the side to see Kakashi blinking at her with green eyes.

'Yes I am, you know your voice isn't half bad, I'm close to breaking into song.' She replied cheerfully. Kakashi gave her a dark look that shocked Sakura; she didn't know she could look so threatening.

'I don't sing.'

'Sure you do, everyone sings.'

'Not me.' He replied more firmly.

Sakura felt she should leave it there, although she was sorely tempted to belt out the hills are alive. She winced slightly and placed a hand to her left temple. The action didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi.

'Sharingan giving you trouble?' He asked lightly.

'Erm yeah just like a dull ache.' She replied rubbing at the sore eye. Kakashi reached up to swat at her hand.

'Don't, you'll make it worse trust me. The ache is normal.' He assured whilst wrestling her arm away from the covered Sharingan.

'What you mean it aches like this often?' She asked worriedly, itching to rub at it again.

'All day everyday.' He answered lazily. Sakura snapped her head towards him shocked.

'You mean it always aches like this? How do you cope its driving me crazy.' She asked astounded.

Kakashi continued to walk, bubblegum hair swaying slightly with each step.

'You get used to it, it used to really annoy me at first but I guess I just adjusted.' He replied somberly.

Sakura frowned softly at the sadness behind his words.

'How did you get the Sharingan?' She asked gently.

His pace slowed and he turned to regard her with a tired expression. Sakura suddenly felt bad for asking, as if he wasn't worn down enough with their situation, now it seemed she had just asked a questioned that had finished him off. Kakashi sighed and looked down as if debating with himself. Sakura prepared to walk off again, letting Kakashi leave the conversation at that, but he replied before she had the chance to.

'My friend gave it to me before he died.' He said quietly as if he had a hard time saying it.

'Oh. I'm sorry.' Sakura answered not quite sure how to act around a somber Kakashi. He seemed to sense her unease and flashed a slight grin at her whilst picking up pace again.

'Don't be.' He said lightly pushing back the pink mop of hair from his eyes.

'Just don't rub at it or it'll fall out.' He added in a mock stern voice.

Although Sakura knew he wasn't being totally serious, she suddenly felt compelled to not do anything to harm the Sharingan. It had been a gift to Kakashi and she felt as though she should respect that. She left her right eye scan the scenery and try to quell the uncomfortable feeling in her throat due to the fact she couldn't see to her left. It was an alarming and annoying inconvenience, and Sakura couldn't help but wonder how Kakashi put up with it.

Kakashi however was enjoying seeing through both eyes without pain or exhaustion for the first time since he was thirteen. Although he found it painfully unfair that he was now short, he was definitely enjoying a break from the Sharingan. I small twinge of guilt pulled at him though, Sakura was suffering with a burden only he was supposed to bear. As much as a blessing the Sharingan is in battle it was also a curse, and Kakashi felt twinges of guilt whenever he thought of Sakura feeling that dull ache.

He allowed his gaze to drift to his body. He still found it immensely weird looking at himself. So this is what he looked like from someone else's eyes. It was a learning experience for sure. The biggest learning experience however was learning how to act in a girl's body. He didn't feel himself and wondered how Sakura ever felt comfortable with this skirt. He cringed for Sakura when he suddenly thought that she was having to cope with being a man. _It's probably worse for her. _He thought sympathetically. He watched as her grim expression suddenly light up.

He cast his eyes in the direction she looking in. There spread out before them was Lord Hoshi's home town. They'd made it, and the sooner they could dump this traveling disaster the sooner they could get home and switched back.

* * *

Lord Hoshi's home was exactly as Sakura had expected. Huge. The carriages shuddered to a halt and doors swung open from every compartment. Hoshi stepped out of the main carriage and made his way toward Kakashi and Sakura. 

'I suppose I should say thank you,' Hoshi said to what he thought was Kakashi.

'Although you have had you moments of distraction,' He glared at what he thought was Sakura before continuing.

'No harm came to me and my family, thank you Hatake.' He muttered, spinning on his heel and thundering toward his home barking orders.

Sakura stole a glance at Kakashi who was looking distinctly snubbed.

'Thank you, both of you. I hope everything works out alright, I apologize again for all this.' Airi said sweetly looking rather upset. Kakashi nodded and Sakura threw open her arms and wrapped Airi in a hug.

'Don't worry about it; we will be back to our old selves in no time.' She replied squeezing her tightly before releasing her.

Airi looked like she was in heaven, and couldn't restrain the goofy smile from spreading across her face. She waved dazedly as she stumbled back to her home.

'Geez Kakashi your hugs sure can affect some people. We should use it as a killer jutsu. People would be hugged into oblivion.' Sakura said as her and Kakashi made their way through the grand gates.

'Oh haven't you heard? It's my most feared jutsu you know. Kakashi's stupendous hug of doom.' He replied with amusement, smiling genuinely at Sakura. She grinned back but felt it useless with the mask blocking it.

It didn't take long for Sakura to make her mind up; she raised her gloved hands and began to tug at the offending mask.

'What are you doing?' Kakashi asked confused as the mask pooled around his usual face.

'That's better; I really don't know why you wear that thing.' Sakura groused, flashing Kakashi's smile at him.

He looked skeptical, and Sakura suddenly got the idea that this may be a little over the bounds, it was his face after all. But then again it was her face for the time being, and as long as she was in his body he would be maskless. Kakashi looked away sulkily.

'Look I'll put it on when we get back to Konoha, then you can still have everyone wondering what mystery you have under here.' Sakura assured.

Kakashi seemed to perk up to that.

'That seems fair.'

'If I do that could you please walk a little less manish?' She asked wrinkling her nose at his slouched posture that was ruining her body shape.

'I am a man. And can you stop making me walk so frilly.' He complained back watching as his body walked with a far more flamboyant bounce than usual.

'I'm a girl, girls are frilly. And speak properly, your making my voice sound so low.' She berated.

'I'm used to having a low voice, can you stop that squeak that you're sneaking into my voice, I can hear it you know.' He replied irked.

'What squeak?' Sakura asked perplexed, Kakashi winced as her voice climbed higher in her question.

'That squeak.'

Sakura's confused looked drained into annoyance again.

'Don't frown so much you'll give me wrinkles.' She barked and watched as his frown deepened.

'Can you stop moving my head like that when you talk?' He growled.

'What?' Sakura asked snapping her head to the left as if to accentuate the question.

'There you did it again, your like little miss bobble head.' He grumbled in response, pushing the pink hair behind his ears.

'Will you stop putting my hair behind my ears; it's going to get a kink in it.' She hissed grabbing at Kakashi.

'Ok look stop it! We could argue like this all day and wouldn't be any closer to being ourselves!' Kakashi snapped swatting away Sakura's hand.

'Let's just try and get along so we can fix this, alright?' He asked with a drained tone. Sakura hmphed and crossed her arms, chewing on her lip.

'Fine.' She muttered, offering an apologetic smile at Kakashi.

He nodded in relief and began his way back into the town. Sakura scrambled to catch up as Kakashi began his decent down the hill into town.

'So when are we leaving for Konoha?' She asked delicately trying to pick a steady path down the hill.

'It's nearly night; we'll stop here tonight and start back tomorrow.' Kakashi confirmed seeming at ease with the rough terrain.

Sakura was just about to agree when she felt her feet sweep out from under her on a piece of lose rock. She went flying onto her back and landed with a dull thud. Her hands flew to her head as she groaned in frustration.

'I can't believe I've fallen over again.' She said in disbelief, staring blankly at the sky. Her face suddenly appeared above her looking amused.

'Now I know why everyone laughs if I ever fall over.' He said with a dry laugh. Sakura raised a eyebrow at him inviting him to explain himself.

'It looks ridiculous, lanky legs and arms going everywhere.' He laughed holding a hand out to his sprawled teammate.

'You sure I won't drag you over like last time?' Sakura asked miserably as she clambered to her feet with his help.

'Seriously how do you control these crazy limbs off yours?' She asked dusting herself off with as much dignity as she could muster.

Kakashi smirked and began his descent of the rest of the hill.

'Practice.' He called over his shoulder at a dust covered Sakura.

The town was small and didn't appear to have much of anything of interest. But Sakura wasn't complaining, all she wanted to do was go to sleep and forget this awful day.

'We should get something to eat before heading to the hotel.' Kakashi suggested glancing around the street. Sakura watched with despair as he made a beeline for the ramen stand.

'I'm sick of ramen.' She whined with a sulky face. Kakashi winced once again at the high pitched noise she made with his voice.

'I know so am I, but it's all we can afford we still have to pay for the hotel rooms.' He answered evenly sliding onto a stool.

Sakura sighed and slid in beside him, knowing he was right. A decent meal would be nice but a warm bed would be even better. Kakashi ordered for both of them and the young man jumped into action preparing their food.

'He's a bit eager.' Kakashi commented. Sakura allowed her eye to drift to the busy young man.

'We're probably the only customers he's had all day.' She replied looking around the empty streets.

The pair lapsed into silence; tiredly regarding the young man prepare their food replaying the events of the day over in their minds. The noodles were placed before them before long and both tucked in eagerly. Sakura may have been sick of noodles but you would never tell from the way she was guzzling them down.

'Careful you already had one food incident on this mission let's not have a repeat.' Kakashi said dryly as he watched her gulp down her food.

Sakura made a small noise in response and continued to eat with a little more care. After sufficiently stuffing themselves with ramen Kakashi and Sakura start back towards the hotel. When they got there a thin overly made up blonde was on the desk, flipping through a magazine in a bored fashion. She flicked her eyes up briefly when the bell at the door went, but snapped them up again and focused completely on Kakashi's face.

A cattish smile spread across her face as she leant forward.

'May I help you?' She asked, her eyes flicking up and down Kakashi's figure.

Sakura wasn't quite sure how to act. If this was a man and she was her normal self she would have told him quite bluntly to stop sizing her up. But she wasn't herself, she as a man. She didn't think that Kakashi would appreciate her making a dramatic display by yelling 'I'm not a piece of meat!' So what was she to do?

Luckily Kakashi stepped in.

'We'd like two rooms please.' He said politely.

The blonde's attention was shifted as she took in Sakura's form, and a slight scowl appeared across her face. Sakura fumed silently.

'Oh right. Let me check.' She muttered and began to drag a long manicured nail down the list infront of her. Her scowl seemed to intensify before she looked up and offered a fake smile.

'I'm afraid we only have one room with a double bed left.' She said in a sickly sweet voice.

'You have to be kidding this place is a ghost town and there is only one room left?' Sakura asked astonished. The girl nodded slightly double checking the list.

'You know what I don't care, lets just get it so we can go to sleep.' Sakura replied perilously close to letting a whine creep into Kakashi's deep voice.

'We'll take it.' Kakashi said smiling briefly at the blonde.

She sighed and snatched at the key left behind her, but presented it to Sakura.

'Here you go, if you need _anything_ let me know.' She said suggestively, her cattish grin making reappearance.

Sakura grabbed the key quickly and started down the hall.

'Ergh how annoying, she was practically throwing herself at you.' Sakura grumbled looking at each door number.

'Hey don't blame me, you were in my body.' He replied chuckling.

'Yeah but it wasn't your sparkling personality she was after.' Sakura hissed.

Kakashi's grin slipped slightly, allowing a more pensive expression to grace the smooth skin of Sakura's face.

'Why are you getting mad at me? I barely said anything to her, its not like I asked her to act that way.' He questioned, stopping just behind her as she plunged the key into there rooms lock.

Sakura sighed and slumped slightly infront of the door.

'I'm sorry, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad that she thinks she could just blatantly size you up like that.' Sakura explained slowly turning to face he own body.

'Why didn't you just say back off like you do to men who look at you?' He asked confused.

'Because, because… I don't really know.' She finished weakly, her gaze falling away from his.

'You can be a confusing girl, you know that?' Kakashi said laughing as he passed her into the room.

'Is it ok if I use the bathroom first?' Kakashi asked even though he was already in its doorway.

'Sure.' She answered tiredly flopping on the bed.

'But no peeking!' She yelled and heard a slight laugh before the door closed. Kakashi was quick, he emerged from the bathroom with a cleaner face and had changed into Sakura's sleeping garments, but apart from that it seems he took her no peeking comment into great consideration.

Sakura stumbled into the bathroom and began with all the usual pre bed rituals. She looked longingly at the shower but knew she would never face the embarrassment if she had one.

She dispelled her previous thoughts and washed her face. She grabbed her towel and gently dabbed at her face before looking in the mirror. She stopped suddenly at her reflection. She was still shocked at seeing Kakashi's face in her reflection, heck she was still shocked at seeing his face full stop.

Time seemed to slow as she peered at Kakashi's face. She allowed a hand to seep back the fringe falling in her eyes. She took in his smooth flawless skin, his soft pale lips and perfectly shaped nose and jaw. She was mesmerized, as she ran her fingers over the silver eyebrows and the supple lips. She was captivated; he was timeless and truly flawless.

Even the haunted look he carried made him even more intriguing, and Sakura found herself lost in the reflection. She suddenly realized why the woman at reception had made such an effort to gain his attention.

A knock made her jump and turn away from the mirror.

'Sakura? Are you ok, you've been in there a long time and its gone quiet?' She heard a muffled voice question. She strode to the door.

'Sorry.' She muttered trying to hide the blush that was forming. Kakashi raised a pink eyebrow but left it at that.

Sakura crawled under the covers and welcomed the warmth of the bed. She felt Kakashi slide in beside her sleepily. She closed her eyes in preparation for a deep sleep. Unfortunately as soon as she allowed the heavy lids to close Kakashi's face flashed across her mind.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**There it is chapter 3! Hope you enjoyed it and please review. Thank you. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

* * *

'Please can we take a break? Please, please, please?'

Sakura whined deliberately falling behind the pace. Kakashi regarded her apprehensively, taking in her moody expression and slow amble. Sakura let out another dramatic sigh, and Kakashi rolled his eyes in response.

'Fine, but not for long.'

Kakashi sat down on a log resting his chin on his hand and watched Sakura happily sit by the roadside.

'Thank you!'

Sakura fell onto her back lying flat out on the ground.

'Why are you so tired anyway?' Kakashi asked lazily.

Sakura could feel her cheeks going red and she bit her lip anxiously. The truth was she had spent most the night thinking of him. The reflection she had scrutinized had stayed with her, and refused to allow her to rest. It worried her how it affected her so much, and she was doing her best to pretend that it didn't.

'Erm just bad night I guess.' She muttered pushing an errant silver lock out of her eyes.

A comfortable silence engulfed them and Sakura lay happily, warm in a patch of sunlight. She allowed herself to take in the warmth of the sun, the sound of rustled leaves and the smell of grass and sighed gently in contentment.

'You know I always think that lying in the sun makes you feel better. Whenever I feel stressed I go and find a spot under a window and lie there, the sun never fails relax me.'

Sakura didn't really know why she said it, but she always felt compelled to tell Kakashi things.

'So when I think your actually working at the hospital, I'm more likely to find you laid out under a window?'

Of course Kakashi had to go and spoil the moment.

'No you ninny, I only do it in my house.' Sakura growled whilst propping herself up on her elbows.

She regarded the smirk he was wearing stonily.

'Alright then, what's your quirk? You know besides reading porn in public, being horrifically late to everything and just being a general smart ass weirdo.'

Sakura asked sweetly tipping her head to the side awaiting a response.

'Words hurt.' He replied lightly before he tapped his finger against his lips in thought.

'Well I suppose I lie behind doors because the draft never fails to…'

Kakashi didn't have a chance to finish as the stick Sakura had thrown at him bounced off the bubblegum hair.

'You can't take anything seriously can you?' She asked bitterly snapping a twig in her fingers.

Kakashi laughed gently.

'I guess the memorial is my version of your window habit.'

He said softly still sporting a smile, but Sakura didn't miss the pain in the green eyes.

It made Sakura suddenly remember that Kakashi was a seasoned ninja, and had been through more and lost more than she could ever imagine. She had heard his childhood had been pretty bleak from Tsunade, filled with misfortunes, death of family and friends, losses that Sakura didn't want to contemplate. She couldn't imagine losing her parents and her teammates, and didn't really want to.

Due to this Sakura was unsure how to respond, she felt as though she should say sorry, but what good would it do they were always the words uttered when someone was at a loss for words of comfort during a tragedy. Kakashi seemed to sense her awkwardness and carried on.

'It's calming in its own way, I know everyone thinks I'm just being morbid and torturing myself for losing my teammates. Everything just feels a lot simpler when I'm there, more clear cut. I know the facts, I'm alive their not but it still offers some odd reassurance. Can't explain it more than that.'

Sakura tried to digest his words. She had often seen him standing before the ominous black stone. She had simply brushed it off had him paying his respects as many did, but now she realized there was so much more to it.

Just like when she had first met him and he fell for Naruto's gag, she had underestimated this man yet again. She felt that happy twinge that he had felt he was able to share this feeling with her.

She offered a small smile in return.

'I understand.' She said in earnest.

'Anyway we should get moving again.' Kakashi said clearing the haze that had seemed to surround them.

* * *

The forest they had been walking in, Sakura decided was awfully dull. No cute fluffy animals made an appearance, only one scruffy looking crow who hopped near them. The light was fading slowly and the trees began to look more twisted and sinister. Sakura shivered slightly gripping at the long sleeved jumper around her.

Kakashi abruptly stopped and threw a kunai at a tree. It landed with a dull thud, and a squeak was heard. Sakura sputtered ready to lay into Kakashi for attacking some poor woodland animal, when a familiar crop of blonde hair appeared from the bush beneath the tree.

'You guys again? You should really just cut your losses and run.' Kakashi drawled spinning another kunai around his fingers slowly.

'You little brat, who do you think you are?' Takara hissed as she rearranged her mass of blonde hair.

'You can come out as well.' Kakashi yelled to a nearby tree.

The tall bulky profile of Takara's teammate, Hibiki materialized.

'Not bad for a little girl.' He muttered as he lumbered to Takara's side.

'Little girl! I'm 16; I'm a woman not a girl!' Sakura shouted waving her arms angrily.

She received two extremely perplexed looks from her enemies, as they took in her exclamation. Sakura shrank back a little realizing she was in fact shouting all this from inside a fully grown male's body.

Kakashi gave her a small horrified look.

'Excuse me?' Takara questioned a laugh caught in her throat.

Kakashi stepped in quickly feeling his sanity needed to be proven.

'You have a rather interesting jutsu that you used on us.' Kakashi said simply still giving Sakura an exasperated look.

Takara looked between them stunned for a moment before realization dawned on her.

'Oh, oh my, this is just too good. I thought it just failed, but no it missed and hit you!' Takara giggled placing a hand across her eyes.

'Oh hahahahaha yes its hilarious now change us back!' Sakura growled clenching a fist.

'Sorry darling but I can't do that.' Takara replied still laughing. Hibiki even had a small chuckle going.

Sakura fumed and stomped toward the blonde.

'Look, change us back or we'll kick your ass!' She ground out feeling Kakashi grabbing her arm to restrain her.

'I'm being serious, I can't change you back.' Takara said her giggles slowly diminishing.

Kakashi and Sakura's expressions pale, and Sakura was sure her heart stopped.

'Are you telling me this is permanent?' Sakura uttered slowly.

'Well no you can change back, but I don't know how.' Takara answered running her fingers through her hair.

'So you used a jutsu that you don't really know how to use?' Kakashi asked accusingly raising an eyebrow.

'No swotty knickers, I know how it works but to change back depends on you two.' She answered huffily.

Kakashi and Sakura glanced at each other, and more worry danced across their features. Sensing their utter confusion Takara explained further.

'It's different for every person you see. It's all about fulfilling your desires; I wanted to use the jutsu to become Airi so I could steal from her family, their loaded you know, I mean tones of jewels and clothes and ornaments…'

Takara's eyes glazed over slightly as her list continued.

'We get it their rich!' Sakura snapped.

Takara gave an unimpressed face at Sakura before continuing.

'Anyway, if I stole just one thing from there the jutsu would break because I would have fulfilled my desire.' She said slowly looking between Kakashi and Sakura.

'So you're saying we just need to fulfill one desire?' Kakashi asked eyes searching Takara's for any sign of dishonesty.

'Well it's not that easy, the desire has to be held by the other person, or similar to the desires of the other.'

She added watching confusion spill over her adversary's faces once again.

'That doesn't make any sense; you and Airi wouldn't have a similar desire. Why would she want something to be stolen from her?' Sakura asked tiredly running a hand through silver locks.

'Airi is a rich little girl with some issues. She wanted her family's wealth to be stolen or taken away, because she wanted to lose her high society status.' Takara replied.

'Why would she want to lose her status?' Kakashi questioned from beside her.

'For a man of course.'

Kakashi and Sakura both recoiled in surprise. She gave nothing away about a man on the journey.

Suddenly Sakura gasped in shock. That conversation they had…

'_I'd give anything to be more like you, to be independent and strong.' Airi said longingly, as Sakura sat happily taking in her compliments. _

'_You can be, just stand up for yourself a bit more. I know it takes a lot of courage, but when you finally take a stand people will take you seriously.' She encouraged_.

Sakura thought it had just been about her father thinking she was incapable, as he did most women. But obviously it was more than that.

'A man?' Kakashi repeated looking worn down.

Takara nodded and smirked as she turned herself to regard Kakashi's body.

'Some women will do anything for the right guy. Airi fell in love with one of the stable hands; they tried to see each other in secret but were discovered. Her father fired the boy and locked Airi away; he said she wouldn't settle for someone so lowly. Due to all his Airi started running away trying to find the kid, but all her attempts failed and her farther hired people to have a constant watch on her.'

Sakura felt a little bit woozy with the thought of forbidden love.

'So being the messed up little rich girl she is she went to her towns old wishing fountain and wished for her high status and wealth to be gone, then she could be truly happy. Amazing how one person can make you willing to throw your life away, how an attraction can be so fatal, isn't it?'

Takara directed this question at Sakura who swallowed nervously; she felt a deep pull on her heart from those words. Silence hung in the air for a few stale moments before Takara flicked back her long hair.

'Either way I can't help you. You two must have a common desire other wise you wouldn't be in this mess.' She said sighing.

'I wonder what it could be.' She said with a knowing look. Kakashi rolled his eyes and turned away from her.

'Come on Sakura lets get going.' He called back.

Sakura walked hurriedly to him glaring at Takara and Hibiki as she passed.

'What makes you think you can just waltz past us like we don't exist?' Takara queried lightly.

'Do you want to fight us?' Kakashi asked with a meaningful tone.

Takara sighed and glanced to the side; she knew fighting the copy ninja and this kunoichi would be a bad idea.

'Nah, we were just hoping to take advantage of some passers by, too bad it turned out to be you two. Besides wouldn't be fair to fight you, both of you seem a little run down.' She said as she turned away laughing.

Her laughter rang in Sakura's ears long after Takara and Hibiki disappeared into the thick woods.

'That woman gives me the creeps.' Sakura whispered.

Kakashi made a soft noise in response as he quickened his pace. Sakura sighed and glanced worriedly at the rode ahead, the woods didn't seem to be ending any time soon and it was getting dark.

She began to stumble over roots and other small bumps in the road; even though she desperately tried to pick her feet up she still stumbled. When she faltered her foot fall for a fourth time Kakashi abruptly stopped.

'It's getting late, we should set up camp.'

Sakura nodded sheepishly, hoping her tripping wasn't the reason for stopping.

The tent was set up quickly enough, but Sakura found herself more than slightly disappointed in dinner. The stale bread and strange ration supposedly nutritional food all ninjas were given didn't look very appetizing. She nibbled at the corners of said food watching as Kakashi appeared to be trying to swallow the food without tasting it, making a rather amusing face.

After being left rather unsatisfied with dinner, Sakura felt the only joy she could find was in sleep. She said her good nights to Kakashi, who opted to stay awake a little longer and crawled into the tent. She lay down and gave into sleep before her brain could obsess over her current dilemmas.

Kakashi sat quietly watching the ambers of the campfire die down. He replayed the conversation with Takara for the 30th time that night. He still couldn't for the life of him think of a common desire between him and Sakura.

It couldn't both wanting to be successful ninja as they were pretty much already there. Neither of them had the compulsive desire to be Hokage like Naruto, and infact would both rather steer clear of that job. Neither really desired money, fame nor riches.

All he could think was that they both wanted to get home to change back. Maybe that was it? Maybe once they walked through Konoha's gates they would change back. Was there a stronger desire? A small part of him hissed yes bitterly. He pushed the voice away quickly, even if it was a stronger desire he knew it wouldn't be shared.

He gazed up to the stars defeated before making his way to the tent.

* * *

There was a boy with dark hair. He appeared to be shouting and waving his arms frantically, anger twisting his face, but there was no sound it was painfully silent.

He turned away, growing smaller with each step. The focus shifted and a petite girl with brown hair was crying. She sank to her knees as she wept; a hand was pressed to her mouth as she reached weakly for something. Eyes fell upon the dark haired boy, crushed beneath rocks mouth gasping weakly. Still not a sound was heard.

Images moved quickly then, the boy and girl flashing past quickly as life was being pressed out. Images became blurs in the silence. The blurs ceased and a scream split the darkness.

Sakura's eyes snapped open, her breath spilled out sharply and she felt a hot tear roll down her cheek. She struggled to regain her breath as she tried to push the lingering images of the nightmare out of her mind. She had never had a nightmare like that before. Never had she dreamt something so chilling.

And that scream.

She pushed her face to the pillow as a soft sob escaped her lips.

Those images weren't her memories. They were Kakashi's.

'Sakura?' She heard him softly question beside her. She did her best to steady her breath before answering.

'Yes?' Was the shaky reply that she muttered into the pillow.

'Are you ok?'

She felt him sit up beside her, looking down expectantly.

'Erm yes just had a bad dream.' She whispered.

Silence fell upon them for a few minutes, but she could still feel him watching her.

'What was the dream about?' He asked faintly.

Sakura could feel more tears threatening her eyes, and she rolled to her other side to regard him in the dark.

'I saw a boy with dark hair, and a girl she was small with brown hair. And they, they well it…' Sakura spluttered as she recalled the nightmare.

She felt a small hand being placed on her shoulder.

'I'm sorry. That should be my nightmare not yours.' He said weakly.

Sakura digested his words slowly, so they were his memories.

'Who are they?' She asked almost fearfully.

In the darkness she saw Kakashi slump slightly, and if the conversation wasn't so serious she would have reprimanded him for slumping her body.

'They _were _my teammates.'

Sakura didn't miss the gloom laced in the word were.

'What happened to them?' She asked slowly, breath still shaken.

Kakashi didn't answer for a long time and Sakura thought he was going to back out and tell her to go to sleep, not like she would be able to sleep again tonight anyway. Just as she was about to give up and say it didn't matter Kakashi spoke up.

'It was during the war. It was my first mission as a Jonin. We split up my sensei went on by himself and would meet us later, that left me Obito and Rin.'

Sakura focused in on the names. Obito and Rin, she was sure she had heard the name Rin mentioned by Tsunade at the hospital once, and the name Obito seemed to ring a bell but Sakura couldn't place where from.

'Something went wrong, we got careless and Rin got captured. Obito wanted to go rescue her but I…' Kakashi stopped for a moment as if he was gathering strength to continue.

'I wanted to leave her and carry on the mission.'

Sakura wouldn't lie and pretend she wasn't shocked. Leaving a teammate was just so un-Kakashi it was unbelievable. She had never known him to put a mission before a teammate. Kakashi sat in the darkness carefully watching Sakura's reaction through the darkness.

'Go on.' She pushed gently.

'We had a fight, he went to find Rin and I carried on. He said those who don't look after their friends are trash. After a while what he said got to me I couldn't leave them so I went back. I got to Obito in time, he was fighting an enemy ninja and not fairing too well. That's how I lost my eye, I moved infront of the enemies attack for him.'

Sakura smiled gently that sounded more like the selfless Kakashi she knew.

'He always was a bit of a dork when it came to being a ninja.'

She heard the fondness in his voice, and her smile widened a little.

'Obito activated his Sharingan for the first time and disposed of the enemy ninja, after that we went and found Rin. We thought we were going to make it, we had Rin we had stalled the enemy ninja, but I got hit on my new blind spot. The landslide the enemy nin had created should have killed me but… Obito pushed me out of the way. He asked Rin to exchange his Sharingan for my damaged eye, he didn't make it.'

Kakashi finished weakly as if exhausted by the memory.

'It was my fault he died if I had just gone with him in the first place. Not long after, sensei died sealing the Kyuubi. I promised to look after Rin but proved to be useless at that as well. She died in a fight against Orochimaru, I wasn't strong enough.

Sakura couldn't help but feel even more miserable. She could feel fresh tears threatening to fall. She couldn't imagine losing Naruto Saskue and Kakashi. As selfish as it was she hoped she wouldn't be the last to go, to have to suffer alone like Kakashi.

'I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you.' Kakashi said gently as Sakura continued to sniffle.

Is the atmosphere wasn't so miserable she would have laughed at the scene. Kakashi the copy ninja renowned for never giving away too much of what he was feeling, was sniffling meekly whilst being comforted by a 16 year old high emotional girl.

Oh course it was really Sakura who was crying just only in Kakashi's body, but she thought she'd skip that part.

'It wasn't your fault.' She said quietly, Kakashi shook his head.

'You weren't there.' He answered.

Silence prevailed for a few moments.

'Thank you. You know for telling me.'

Kakashi tilted his head curiously at Sakura's response.

'It means a lot to know you feel comfortable talking to me.'

He was even more curious at that response. He never knew she held his trust in such high regard.

'Do you think you'll be able to sleep?' He asked.

Sakura really didn't want to go back to sleep, she was fearful of another nightmare but she didn't want to keep Kakashi up.

'I'll be right here.'

Sakura beamed at his reassurance and nodded as she slowly sank back down to sleep. Her happiness dwindles slightly as her heart ached. She refused to accept she was having more than platonic feelings for Kakashi. Her heart begged to differ however. She needed to get home; the sooner she got home the sooner she could get to squash these emotions.

* * *

They weren't far from Konoha and the knowledge of this put a spring in Sakura's step. She was convincing herself with each step that when they got back, Tsunade would be able to fix the whole situation. Sakura couldn't wait. She already had a list of things she was going to do once in her body again.

Firstly she was going to take a long bubble bath, then change into her Pj's regardless of what time of day it was, and sit back on her comfortable couch and drink hot chocolate as she caught up on all the t.v. she'd missed. She would then clamber into her wonderful bed, and sleep for perhaps a week.

She was ecstatic just thinking about it.

Kakashi couldn't say he wasn't looking forward to changing back either. He was planning on a nice hot shower, followed by as much food as he could manage, finding some comfy trousers and t-shirt, and resigning himself to sleeping for as long as he could without people presuming he was dead.

He couldn't wait.

'How often do you have those nightmares?' Sakura asked as casually as she could.

'I used to have them a lot, but now I don't know…once or twice every month?' He replied shrugging it off.

'How about you?' He asked looking at her expectantly.

'What? I don't really have nightmares.' She replied quickly. Kakashi raised a delicate pink eyebrow.

'Yeah you do, you had one in the hotel and you've had them before on missions. You always jump like ten feet in the air.'

Sakura blushed feeling slightly embarrassed. She was always worried when she slept in the presence of others, back when team seven was newly formed she would barely get any sleep in fear of snoring, drooling or sleep talking. Nowadays she thought stuff what the boys think, she needed her sleep.

'Oh, I don't know if you can call it a nightmare, but I get that you think your falling off a cliff thing quite a lot.' She explained.

'Sounds pretty nightmarish to me.' Kakashi responded.

Sakura smiled and shrugged her shoulders in reply. Her nightmares seemed rather childish next to his. She lifted her head to something in the distance that was anything but nightmarish.

There before them was Konoha gates.

'Oh!'

The squeak that escaped Sakura from Kakashi's voice box was anything but masculine, and Kakashi gave her an annoyed look.

'Do you have to squeak?' He grumbled, watching as his body began jumping up and down in a girlish manner.

'Or do that?' He asked trying to still her movements by grabbing her arms.

'Were home! Oh thank the lordy!' She cried happily, and grabbed Kakashi and spun him in a hug.

In the back of her mind she thought how strange it was too hug herself, but she was too happy to care. Kakashi wriggled out of her reach and attempted to straighten out the skirt that had ridden up. He stopped abruptly realizing how he was actually beginning to turn into a girl in such a short time.

They walked briskly towards the gate, Sakura still making the odd squeak now and then, and still receiving death glares from Kakashi.

'Home sweet home!' Sakura proclaimed happily as they strolled down the streets toward the Hokage tower.

'Sakura could you keep your voice down people are staring…' Kakashi warned gloomily, as people turned to regard the normally stoic ninja laughing and shouting.

'Oh right sorry. I have to be moody like you.' She said attempting to calm herself.

Kakashi made an unimpressed face.

'Oh please don't sulk.' Sakura said elbowing him in the ribs gently.

'I'm not sulking.' He grumbled swatting at the elbow.

Sakura was just about to give the old 'turn that frown upside down' line, when she heard an annoyingly familiar voice.

'Hey forehead! What's wrong with you? Looks like someone just slapped you with a wet fish.'

Sakura fumed quietly in Kakashi's form, and watched as Kakashi's expression changed from gloomy to slightly surprised.

'Excuse me? Oh wait I'm not…'

'Sakura isn't feeling too well, something she ate you know what it's like on these missions.'

Sakura interrupted, she glanced at the utterly perplexed look Kakashi was giving her. She offered a pleading look, willing him to play along. She couldn't let Ino know what happened, she would never live it down, and she would torture her about it.

'Erm yeah I feel a bit ill.' Kakashi said slowly catching on.

Ino made a face before taking a step back.

'Well keep it to yourself; I don't need you making me ill.' She said.

'Nice sympathy Ino.' Sakura spat, before wishing to take it back.

Ino gave an unimpressed look at Kakashi's form. Oh no.

'Alright Kakashi-sensei no need to get you knickers in a twist.' She giggled before turning her look on Sakura's form.

'I'll call you later.' She said turning on her heel, marching into the crowds.

Sakura glared at her back till she disappeared into the crowd. She could feel Kakashi's eyes on her expectantly.

'Don't ask, it's just better if she doesn't know.' She explained quickly setting off into the crowd.

Kakashi sighed and followed after her.

* * *

'Come in!'

Sakura practically leapt to the door when she heard them being summoned. Both her and Kakashi stood before Tsunade, and waited patiently as she finished writing.

'Alright, the mission went well I take it?' She asked flickering her eyes between the two infront of her, and the papers on the desk.

'Yes the mission was a success but…'

'Good I expect the reports tomorrow.' Tsunade said cutting off Kakashi.

'Yes but something happened…' Kakashi tried again.

'Sakura it's not like you to speak up with so much urgency.' Tsunade commented lightly still concentrating on the papers.

'He's not Sakura, I am.' Sakura blurted out.

Tsunade's pen paused on her paper; she set it down slowly and regarded the two infront of her closely.

What looked like Kakashi had the appearance of someone who was about to hyperventilate. And what appeared to be Sakura was slouched slightly with a dry expression.

'Would you care to explain?' She asked evenly.

It didn't take long for Kakashi to explain the whole unfortunate situation, and Tsunade sat back in her chair lips quirked in amusement.

'I see, that's rather unfortunate.' Tsunade stated barely containing her smile.

'Can you change us back?' Sakura asked hopefully.

Tsunade let out a dry laugh and leaned forward on the desk.

'Nope. Can't say I can.' She answered.

Silence fell upon the office, as both Kakashi and Sakura absorbed her words.

A few seconds after this revelation Sakura let out a low frustrated growl and sat on the floor clutching at silver locks.

'You mean we are stuck like this?' She asked.

'No you can change back, that Takara was telling the truth, you must have a common desire.'

Sakura growled again lowering her head.

'But Tsunade we have been through every possible desire, and we can't think of anything that hasn't already been achieved or something we both share.'

Kakashi said letting out his exasperation with the situation, and lent back till his back hit the wall behind.

'Well you will just have to think harder, you wouldn't be in this muddle if you didn't share a desire.' Tsunade said picking up her pen again.

'Now get out I have other appointments.'

Sakura snapped her head up.

'What are we supposed to do in the mean time?!' She cried.

'I don't know! Figure it out! Only you two can fix this, so it looks like you will be spending a lot more time together.' Tsunade snapped.

'I suggest you better get started.' She added pointing to the door.

Sakura and Kakashi both muttered a yes and trudged toward the door.

Sakura felt like bursting into tears, Tsunade couldn't help them. What if they couldn't figure out their common desire? Would they be stuck like this forever?

* * *

**Hey everyone! I hope you liked it! I followed Obito's death from Kakashi gaiden but I made Rin's up as nobody seems to know anything about her. I hope you all went awww at the image of an upset Kakashi (even if it was really Sakura) I wonder if anyone can guess what their common desire is…. Anyway read and REVIEW! Please and thank you. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**

The weather, according to Sakura was far too bright in comparison to her current mood. She was tugging at frayed ends of her sleeve, with Kakashi watching her obviously deliberating whether to tell her to stop damaging his clothing.

He wisely kept quiet, and allowed her to take her frustration out on his jumper. They had left the Hokage's tower over an hour ago, and since then not much progress had been made.

Sakura knew they should be concentrating on finding their common desire, but her heart wasn't in it, all she really wanted to do was sulk.

Kakashi watched the downtrodden teenager rest silver covered head on long arms. He wanted to try and make some headway with this, but feared Sakura would give a rather nasty response if he disturbed her.

Before either knew it another half hour slipped past.

'Maybe we should try and rethink our problem?' Kakashi asked, regarding the chipped pink nail polish on delicate fingernails.

Sakura buried her face further into her arms.

'I don't feel like it, I'm too depressed.'

Kakashi sighed and began to lazily scratch at the nail polish. Another 15 minutes crawled by before he tried again.

'It must be something obvious and were just missing it.' He said looking out the window.

Sakura raised her eyes to take in her body's appearance. Good grief she looked rough. The bubblegum pink hair was tousled and starting to look in need of a good wash. Her clothes bore small tears and dark smudges. In general her body looked in need of a shower.

'I think we need to get cleaned up.' She said simply, as she raised long limbs above her head as she stretched.

Kakashi glanced at Sakura and almost cringed. His clothes were even more disheveled than usual, as is his body had shrank even more since Sakura had inhabited it. His hair was even more of a mess and looked a tad greasy; his general appearance was that of a person you would find sleeping on a park bench.

'I think your right.'

* * *

Both knew this moment would come. As soon as there fears of being stuck like they were had been confirmed, they knew. And although they had been expecting it, the sheer embarrassment and awkwardness of the situation was overwhelming.

'Maybe this isn't such a good idea.'

'But I can smell myself, which is never good.'

'Maybe we can shower fully clothed?'

'What and stay in those wet clothes?'

'Oh…right.' Sakura was desperately running out of stalling tactics, and Kakashi didn't seem very enthusiastic either.

'Who goes first?' Kakashi asked offhandedly.

'This is so weird.' Sakura whined pouting whilst pressing her forehead to the doorframe.

'I know.' He said bleakly.

'You're my sensei.' She stated grimly.

'You're my student.' He echoed with equal gloom.

'My male sensei.' She said despondently

'My female student.' He confirmed.

'Arghhhh.'

Kakashi gathered from the frustrated scream that neither of them were making any ground. So far they had confirmed they were teacher and student, and that they were male and female, although it was difficult to tell these days.

'Fine, fine. I'll go first.' Sakura said firmly, gathering the courage to push off the doorframe and take one tentative step before stopping.

On her attempt to take another step however she chickened out, and made a small pessimistic sounds.

'I promise I'm not that hideous.' Kakashi said amused.

That wasn't what Sakura was worried about. She knew he wasn't hideous in any way, shape or form. It was in fact the very opposite that had her worried. She was worried that she would just end up succumbing to perving on his body. Which in someway she felt was violating him, after all he had no say in her oggeling. And she knew he would have the up most respect for her, and there would be no oggeling on his part. But then again Sakura wouldn't mind if he did.

She felt like slapping herself, she shouldn't be thinking this now!

'No, no. It's not that your not nice looking, cause you well kind of are.'

Now she really felt like slapping herself, as she watched Kakashi raise an eyebrow in amusement. Why on earth had she said that? She was seriously wondering where her brain had gone.

'I mean in a totally friendly way, because I mean you're my sensei and I so don't think of you that way.'

She watched as another eyebrow quirked.

'Not that I can't see why people would think of you in that way.'

She couldn't help herself; it was just all gushing out. She was dieing to say, _'That's a lie, I think your gorgeous come have your wicked way with me!' _

But promptly derailed that thought because the way she was going now she may actually say it. That and said gorgeous man looked like her at this moment and that would just be weird.

'I mean, ermm yeah I'm going for a shower now.' She spluttered as she shot into the bathroom.

She leant against the door horrified. What had possessed her to say all that? She closed her eyes and half laughed and cried.

She left her eyes drift to the shower and the laughter/crying began again.

On the other side of the door a stunned and amused Kakashi stood smirking softly.

He didn't know what he found weirder, his teenage student inadvertently saying she found him attractive, or the fact that it had been his own body and voice that had said it all. Not that he hadn't enjoyed it. Sakura admitting she found him attractive, not that it was him who said it of course, that would be extremely bizarre.

Sakura emerged from the bathroom 15 minutes later.

Kakashi could have sworn she was blushing, but he put it down to the heat of the shower.

'There you go it's over now, and you're still alive.' He said getting up and strolling toward her.

He kept walking to where Sakura was stood in the doorway, and looked as though he intended to barrel straight past her. However it seems the copy ninja didn't take in the sight of the small space. His shoulder brushed heavily past Sakura's upper arm, and their hands bumped awkwardly. Sakura almost jumped at the shock it sent through her arm, she coughed gently and scuttled to the middle of the room.

Kakashi offered her a small knowing smile as he began too close the door.

'No peaking!'

Sakura felt the need to install the fear of god into him, it was for the best.

After the door closed Sakura felt particularly alone in Kakashi's apartment. She had insisted they stayed together, this was too ensure that people (mostly Ino) didn't hear about their unfortunate mishap, and so they could figure out how to change back. At least that's what she told herself, a small part of her niggled and persisted that she just wanted to stay close to him.

She looked around the rather tidy bedroom in curiosity. It was awfully normally, and everything a bedroom should be, but the fact that was Kakashi's made it special. It made Sakura feel like she was in a museum, that objects weren't simply there for necessity, but preserved to be marveled at.

She took in the double bed that stood dominantly against the main wall, it sheets slightly made but still ruffled from when Kakashi had last slept there. A small bedside table with an unknown volume of Icha Icha, and a little lamp pressed up to the beds side.

Across the room stood a plain brown desk with papers strewn about it, she drifted toward it unconsciously. She glanced over the many unfinished mission reports, accident reports (mostly to do with Saskue and Naruto), and sheets of unintelligible writing. She smiled as she ran her hands on the sides of the desk fondly. Her eyes continued to wonder over the cluttered items on the desk, pens, an abandoned mug with world's greatest mum embezzled on the side, a picture frame containing a picture of team seven, and another picture frame.

Sakura froze at the faces in the photo. The tall blonde in the picture Sakura realized was the fourth Hokage. Her eyes drank up the appearance of a young Kakashi before falling upon the other girl and boy in the photo.

She hissed and pressed a hand to her left temple as pain shot through her skull. The image of the boy and girl flashed through her mind, both of them smiling and laughing. She let go of the photo frame immediately and the image vanished.

The throb of pain lingered on however in her temple.

'Can be a pain sometimes can't it?'

Sakura let out a small eep and turned quickly to see a cleaner looking Kakashi. He was toweling the short pink hair sluggishly.

'Is there nothing they can do for the constant ache?' She asked rubbing the sore temple.

'Afraid not. Tsunade said it's a bit too risky trying to sort out deep eye and head injuries, better to just let the body deal with it naturally. That and the only people who really knew enough about how the Sharingan works were killed.' He answered, folding the towel before hanging it on the back of his desk chair.

Sakura nodded forlornly, there were only two people left who were the rightful heirs to the Sharingan. She doubted Saskue knew much of its inner most workings, simply because his parents didn't have the chance to tell him. And the other…well he was what Sakura called a nasty pasty.

'How about some dinner?' Kakashi asked cheerfully in an attempt to shake the downbeat mood.

Sakura grinned and marched toward the kitchen.

'Have a seat.' Kakashi offered politely as he began rummaging through the fridge.

Sakura regarded him quietly as he closed the fridge with an unimpressed noise, before turning his attention to various cupboards.

'Slight problem.'

Sakura continued to watch him, waiting for him to finish.

'There appears to be no food.' He sighed kicking a cupboard closed.

'Looks like we are eating out then?'

* * *

Sakura absolutely refused to eat anymore ramen, and steered herself and Kakashi toward a small, pleasant looking restaurant.

They slipped into a booth, and began flicking through the menu.

'Now remember you're me, so be ladylike, polite and don't slouch.'

Sakura growled with a dark look.

'I thought you said act like you.' Kakashi fired back.

'Are you implying I'm not ladylike?'

She hissed leaning over the table menacingly. Kakashi held her gaze confidently.

'Oh of course not, you just have psychotic tendencies.' He replied cheerfully.

'Me?!'

'Yes you, hitting teammates with a punch that can level buildings is a tad freaky deaky.'

Kakashi stated calmly, whilst flipping through the menu.

'I only hit you because you deserve it!' She spat crossing her arms angrily.

'I am a fragile soul; I can't have you beating me up all the time.' Kakashi sighed.

Sakura wanted to reach forward and slap him. But she quickly reminded herself, that giving her face a black eye wouldn't be attractive. Not only that but Kakashi slapping his female student in public may cause concern for some members of the public.

So Sakura resigned herself to sulking, and giving Kakashi the evil eye. Although she felt it was wasted on him as he was so engrossed by the menu.

An old waitress shuffled to their table and flipped out a pad and pen, with ease that could only have come with years of practice.

'Ready to order?' She asked in a gravelly voice.

The woman looked tired and weary, her body showing the tell tale signs of a life of hard work. As she shuffled away after taking their orders, Sakura made a mental note to stick being a ninja; otherwise she may end up a withered waitress. It saddened her and frightened her a little.

'Did you ever want to be something else?' She asked impulsively.

Kakashi flicked green eyes to her in mild confusion.

'You know, like not a ninja, something else.' She elaborated.

Kakashi rested his chin on a delicate hand in thought.

'Can't really say I have, I just grew up around ninja so I never really thought of being anything else.'

He answered, pushing the thin straw around his drink.

'How about you?'

'I guess when I was little I did, but I'm like you, my parents are ninja so it just seemed the job to do.'

She said inspecting yet another clump of silver hair.

'What did you want to be when you were little?'

Sakura smiled a little at Kakashi's question.

'Oh you know the usual things every little girl wants to be.' She said vaguely, a small smile still playing at her lips.

'Which would be?'

'A singer, a model, actress…oh and my favorite a princess!' She chirped.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow slowly.

'You, a princess?' He said slowly. Sakura let go of the silver hair she had been scrutinizing, and leaned over the table menacingly toward Kakashi.

'I could be a princess if I wanted!' She growled.

Kakashi's expression twisted slightly, and Sakura glance to her left to see their elderly waitress. Needless to say she was giving Sakura a worried look, almost pitying.

'Not that I would want to be a princess, I mean I'm a man, who does manly things! Yeah…I ermm.' Sakura stuttered whilst Kakashi looked horrified.

'It's alright honey, I meet all sorts here.' The waitress said warmly, whilst placing down the food.

'No I'm not a sort of person; I'm a normal manly man!' Sakura called after her weakly.

She looked at Kakashi, who's expression was exasperated, dismayed and murderous.

Sakura offered a small smile and shrugged her shoulders in apology.

'Next time just don't talk.' He growled tiredly.

* * *

'I am sooo tired.' Sakura said between a yawn and a stretch.

Kakashi nodded in response, yawning himself.

'You can have the bed; I'll sleep on the sofa.' He said gently arranging the pillows in a comfortable manner.

'Are you sure?' It's your bed.' Sakura said awkwardly, she didn't want to be a nuisance.

'You take the bed, just past me a blanket from my room.' Kakashi said firmly, ending the matter.

Sakura padded into the bedroom she had been analyzing early, and looked around quietly. After a few moments her tired brain directed her toward a large airing cupboard. She snagged a duvet and dragged it into the living room.

Kakashi was already laid on the sofa eyes closed, breathing softly. He was on his back, small delicate body stretched out, as if trying to imitate his normal height. The pink hair was splayed messily about the pillow, and Sakura mentally grumbled knowing it would resemble a nest in the morning.

It was strange seeing herself sprawled out before her, but she still found it weirder to think a man as dangerous and skilled as Kakashi was trapped within that delicate, female body.

'Here.'

Kakashi allowed one green orb to open as Sakura threw the duvet over the sofa.

'Thanks.'

She smiled and turned back to the bedroom. She welcomed the warmth the large bed provided, and snuggled down comfortably. The scent of Kakashi radiated from the pillows, and Sakura found herself inhaling just that little bit deeper, savoring the warm sensation it evoked. She couldn't resist the warm feeling that settled in her chest as she thought of the man, whose scent was causing her to turn to mush.

Naruto smiled brightly at every passerby, bird and bee that trundled past him. He grinned as he bounded toward Sakura's house. His enthusiasm was slightly dampened however when Sakura's father answered the door.

'Hell Mr. Haruno, is Sakura home?' He asked politely.

Sakura's father gave a weary expression to Naruto, as though just the presence of the boy tired him out.

'Hello Naruto. I'm afraid she's not.' He replied with equal exhaustion.

Naruto's brow furrowed in thought, he was sure he had the date right, she should be home.

'Is she not back from her mission yet?' He asked a little louder, making the already fragile state of Mr. Haruno shake a little.

'Yes I believe she is, but we got a rather strange phone call from her. She will be staying at the hospital a few days, some tummy bug, poor thing were not even allowed to visit her.' He answered.

'She's in hospital?!' Naruto boomed, forgetting all polite quite voices.

Mr. Haruno visibly winced at the outburst, and nodded his head weakly. Naruto took another moment to digest the information before flashing a huge grin and spinning on his heal.

'Thanks Mr. Haruno!' He yelled waving.

Mr. Haruno watched the boy depart, and sighed gently running a hand through his hair.

Naruto now bounded down the streets with a new purpose. He still offered smiles to all that past him, and received a fair few, along with worried looks and teary eyes from toddlers in response to his manic grin.

It didn't take him long to reach Kakashi's apartment block. He took the stairs two at a time, till he reached Kakashi's door.

He knocked vigorously at the door, and listened intently, fidgeting every now and then.

After a few moments of silence he knocked again. He heard a slightly noise from the other side of the door, what he though was hushed clipped voices, and straightened a little.

A disheveled Kakashi opened the door yawning, he was missing his headband and was dressed in a baggy t-shirt and trousers.

'Hey sensei!'

Naruto watched as Kakashi pressed a hand over his eyes, shielding them from the light.

'Naruto, you're too loud in the mornings.'

Naruto seemed to ignore this comment, and leaned in to regard Kakashi.

'So you are back from you mission!' He confirmed.

'I heard Sakura's in the hospital.' He said with a more worried tone.

'What are you…oh yeah she is.' What Naruto believe was Kakashi muttered, fingers combing at silver hair.

'Well is she ok?!' He asked gaining volume again.

'Yeah she'll be fine, just contagious so she's on isolation.'

Naruto looked sullen for a few moments, before bursting into a grin again.

'Alright get dressed! We can train like you promised!'

At this proclamation Naruto shoulder past the taller man, and wandered into the apartment.

'Do you mind if I get drink?' He asked already making his way through the living room.

If Sakura hadn't been awake a moment ago she was now. She snapped her head to the direction of the kitchen, where Kakashi in her body was hiding. If Naruto went in there and saw her body, well no doubt he would jump to some kind of disastrous conclusion.

'Wait!' She cried.

Naruto abruptly stopped and turned to face his teacher in shock, it wasn't like Kakashi to suddenly cry out.

Sakura scanned for a conversation topic as Naruto stared at her stunned. She looked over his shoulder, and could see Kakashi sneaking out of the kitchen and making a beeline for the bathroom.

'What?' Naruto asked finally.

'Erm nothing, there was a bee. Didn't want you to get stung.'

Naruto looked carefully at what appeared to be his sensei, before shrugging and walking into the kitchen.

Sakura looked around nervously, as Naruto poured himself some juice.

'Are you going to get dressed then?' He asked between gulps.

'Oh, right. Naruto I'm really sorry but I don't feel so well. I think I'm coming down with something, and would hate to give it to you.' Sakura gushed.

'Aww no fair, you promised. You seem ok to me.' Naruto said pouting.

'I know I did and I'll make it up to you, you better go I'm starting to feel real sick.'

Sakura then inserted two very fake, dry coughs. As a medical ninja it was the worst feigned illness she had ever come across, she just hoped it would do for Naruto.

He gave a disappointed look before placing his glass in the sink.

'Alright sensei! Get well soon, I'm just going to use your bathroom.' He beamed, springing into the living room.

Sakura's heart stopped for the second time that morning.

'No wait! Don't go in the bathroom!' She yelled deliberately, making sure the word bathroom was clear.

'Maybe you are ill sensei, your acting weird.' Naruto commented, watching his sensei waves his arms in the air.

'Erm yea, real ill you should just leave now.' Sakura said still pointing toward the front door.

'Sure, I just really need to go first.'

Naruto said beginning to turn; Sakura could see Kakashi was just coming out the door way, making frantic gestures with his hands.

'No! It's not safe!' She yelled in desperation, causing Naruto to look at her again. A small gush of relief overwhelmed her, as she watched Kakashi dash into the bedroom.

'I mean there's a huge spider in there, I fear for my life whenever I go in there.' Sakura explained to a perplexed looking Naruto.

'I'll take the risk.' Naruto said calmly. After he disappeared into the bathroom, Sakura ran to the bedroom door and closed it. A few moments later Naruto reappeared.

'Get well soon sensei!' He chirped as he bounced with energy to the front door.

'Bye!' Sakura called. As soon as the door closed she let out a breath she had been holding, and slumped against the doorframe. The bedroom door opened, and Kakashi popped his head out.

'That was close.'

* * *

**Hey it's me! Sorry this chapter took a little longer, but I hope you liked it. Leave me your thoughts, reviews make me smile! Thanks, read and review! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

**

Kakashi sat lazily on the sofa, picking at the shorts covering slim legs. He watched Sakura rearrange gray looks in a mirror. He sighed loudly and deliberately. Sakura tipped her head to the left and swept agile fingers through the silver fringe.

Kakashi sighed again, and stared at her.

'What?' She asked still preening herself in the mirror.

'Sakura I never knew you were so fascinated with my appearance.' Kakashi stated blandly. Sakura blushed immediately and spun away from the mirror.

'Actually, I was trying to make this state look acceptable.' She replied tersely, trying to hide the growing blush. The last thing she wanted was for Kakashi to catch on just how much she adored looking at him.

Kakashi raised an eye brow, before closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the back of the sofa. Sakura flopped down beside him.

'You really should invest in a good conditioner you know. It'll do wonders for this mop of yours.'

He gave a soft humph in response, and Sakura rolled mismatched eyes.

'Don't be boring.' She pouted, placing a hand on a slim arm.

'I'm being boring, because I am bored.' He stated slowly, still refusing to open his eyes.

'Can't we go out?' He asked, voice holding a slight whine.

Sakura bit her lip, she did want to get out of the apartment, but she didn't want to risk going outside. They would be both better off staying inside, so nobody would know of their embarrassing predicament.

'I don't think it's such a good idea.' She mumbled, feeling a little guilty she was keeping Kakashi prisoner.

'Aw come on.' He answered sitting up, to fix her with a pleading look.

'We can't, we've told everyone were ill. If we get seen they'll ask questions.' Sakura replied trying to avoid Kakashi's gaze. Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment, before speaking again.

'What if we go somewhere nobody will see us?'

Sakura allowed herself a moment to visualize places where no one would see them.

'Like where?'

Kakashi allowed a smile to creep onto feminine features.

'Our training ground. Nobody is using it, no ones going to use it today, it's perfect.'

Sakura's heart plummeted slightly. A trip to the training fields usually resulted in training. And Sakura was definitely not up to training, not when she was so down, and not when she was in someone else's body. She was about to give a sharp no when she looked at Kakashi's expression.

She was met with a pleading puppy dog eyes, and she felt her heart stings being successfully pulled. He was using her own sad face against her, and it was working. Another few moments of the pout and her resolve crumbled.

'Ohh fine.' She sighed throwing her hands up.

Kakashi looked sufficiently pleased with himself, and Sakura turned to regard him.

'I can't believe you used my own pout against me.' She mumbled into fingerless gloves.

'Well, I just remember how effective it's been in the past.' He said happily making his way to the door. Sakura sighed before following him.

'Ah, see fresh air does you good.'

Sakura threw an unimpressed look to Kakashi, before sitting down in the shade of a tree. Kakashi moved to stand infront of her.

Now now, we didn't come out here for you to sit and be gloomy.'

Sakura looked up at her body.

'If you think I'm training, think again.' She answered huffily.

Kakashi regarded her silently for a moment, before he quirked his lips into a smile.

'Don't worry I get it, your probably right.' He said.

'Right about what?' Sakura snapped, squinting the lone, dark eye to watch him in the sunlight.

'Right about not being able to handle my abilities, it's perfectly normal, I mean I am amazing.'

Even though Kakashi was being deliberately conceited, and arrogant, the comment still got to her.

'I was thinking more along the lines that it wouldn't be worth my time, you know testing your second hand abilities.' She answered smugly.

Kakashi's grin widened.

'Really?'

'Really'

The two stared each other out, Kakashi with a grin and Sakura trying to keep a smile creeping onto her face.

'I guess it wouldn't be fair, getting beaten by your own body, now that would be really embarrassing.' Kakashi said shrugging small shoulders.

'I could say the same for you.' Sakura answered calmly.

'Besides, I bet you wouldn't last 10 minutes anyway.'

Sakura did rise to that one.

'Alright, you want a fight, your going to get one.' She said rising to her feet, she slowly slipped into a fighting stance.

'I hope you've been watching me closely over the years. Otherwise, you'll have no idea what you're doing.' Kakashi said slowly, Sakura tried to dislodge the heavy feeling that it was a warning.

'Same to you sensei.' She answered a little less confidently.

It was then Kakashi sprang into action, aiming a chakra laden fist at Sakura's body. Sakura let out a small eep, before her body seemed to react automatically flipping backwards in a neat well practiced back flip.

She landed and looked shocked; she had never been able to do gymnastic moves without thinking about them before.

'It appears, we don't keep our learned abilities, only the body we are in learned abilities.' Kakashi stated.

It made sense, just because Sakura knew how to manipulate chakra to make it a powerful weapon, didn't mean Kakashi's body knew how to. After all, it had taken a lot of practice on Sakura's part to get her body accustomed to her techniques.

'Ready?' He asked.

Sakura nodded, and Kakashi lunged again. She dodged to the side just as Kakashi's fist met with the tree behind her. The wood splintered, and the tree swayed before collapsing to the side. She watched as a slightly pained expression danced through green eyes.

'Hurts the first few times, guess I should have warned you, sorry.'

Sakura didn't sound in the least bit sorry, and smirked wickedly at Kakashi who was nursing bruised knuckles. The smirk quickly faded as Kakashi unleashed another barrage of punches and kicks.

Sakura dodged as best as she could, only being struck slightly once or twice. As she dodged and weaved, she ran through memories of fights in her head. She needed to think of the advantages and disadvantages Kakashi held.

She ran through the advantages first. Kakashi was tall; this had proved beneficial more than once, as he could strike at opponents from a safe distance which they could not counter from. Looking at her frame which stood at only 5'7, she could definitely employ this advantage.

Advantage number two, Kakashi was lean and built for speed and endurance. Although he isn't particularly strong, due to his speed he could wear the strongest of opponents down. This speed also meant he could dodge without much trouble, making opponents miss and become tired.

Advantage number two, Kakashi was particularly skilled in more gymnastic maneuvers than Sakura wished to think about. The amount of times she had seen his lithe body contort into almost impossible moves was far too often to count.

These were the main advantages Sakura could think of at that moment. She was sure there would be more. Besides being a genius and just amazingly skilled at, ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu.

The disadvantages were that Kakashi isn't particularly strong. Now he had adapted to this a learned a fighting style that suite being less strength based. Sakura however, had learnt a style fighting completely based on strength.

Another disadvantage was the fear of exhaustion due to the Sharingan. To tell the truth Sakura was far to terrified to even attempt to wield that weapon. The Sharingan scared her far too much for her to think she would be capable of using it.

The only other disadvantage she could think of right then was his love for porn. She fondly remembered her and Naruto using his love of Icha Icha to win the bell test last time. But some how she didn't think that would work again.

'Are you going to actually try to hit me sometime today?' Kakashi drawled, catching his breath momentarily.

'I'm just waiting for the right moment to strike, then BAM you won't see it coming.' Sakura replied rearranging her shirt sleeves.

'Bam?'

Sakura looked up to see the small quirk on pink lips.

'Yes bam.'

'Alright then, I better be prepared for this, erm bam.' Kakashi replied slipping into a fighting stance once again.

He didn't give Sakura long to respond before he started the steady barrage of kicks and punches. Sakura was finding herself getting into a comfortable rhythm of dodging, that's when it happened. The bam, except much to Sakura's dismay it wasn't her who instigated it.

She let out a small eep as a chakara filled fist connected with her jaw, quickly followed by a swift kick to the gut. She landed on the floor with a dull thud, one hand clutching her jaw and the other on her stomach.

'I do believe that was a BAM.' Kakashi smirked triumphantly down at her. Sakura glared to best her ability as she gasped for air.

'Ok ouch.' She wheezed looking up at him. She watched as the tiniest bit of guilt pulled at feminine features.

'Now you know what it feels like.' He said with an amused tone.

'I'll get you for that.' She mumbled slowly picking herself off the floor. How had she missed that?

'You know if you used the Sharingan you would have been able to see that, and dodge it.' Kakashi drawled.

Sakura froze; he was giving her permission to use his greatest weapon. But did she really want to use it, was it worth it?

'I don't know…'

'You may as well, otherwise you're going to struggle.'

Sakura didn't know whether that was meant to be a compliment about her bodies abilities, or a dig at her ineptness to use his abilities to their fullest. She quickly decided it was probably a dig, he rarely ever used his Sharingan when sparing with her, and he usually reserved it for training with Naruto or Saskue.

She really was at a loss, it was true that the Sharingan fascinated her; it had ever since he used it against Zabuza. But as much as it intrigued her and how much she wished to understand its inner workings, it did scare her. She struggled silently for another few moments.

'Trust me.' Kakashi stated firmly.

Those two words made up her mind, and she nodded reaching for the headband. It was worrying how much trust she had in him, if ever he said trust me she would do about anything.

It seemed weird being able to see through both eyes again, everything seemed that little bit fuller and brighter. She blinked a few times adjusting herself.

'Ready?'

It was incredibly crazy she decided. Messages and thoughts were sent to her brain far too quickly as she tried to dodge and counter. She could see and comprehend things she never usually could in battle till afterwards. It was all a bit too much.

She found herself more on the offensive now, landing a fair few glancing blows and every now and then a solid one. Kakashi looked a little more hassled than previously as he created clones off himself.

Sakura glanced around at them all. She could see, she could barely believe it but she immediately knew which were fake, and which the real one was. She began with the closest clones taking them down with ease, till she reached the real Kakashi. She slipped past the kick aimed for her gut. Everything seemed to stop at that moment. She could see the slight quirk of surprise and amusement on Kakashi's face.

There was a dull thump as her fist connected soundly against the small jaw. She quickly regretted as she belatedly though of the bruise that would definitely develop.

There was a stunned silence as Kakashi rubbed his jaw gently, still looking fairly surprised. Sakura straightened slightly and grinned.

'Oh yes ladies and gentlemen that was a BAM!'

Just as she was laughing and about to do her victory dance, a shiver shot through her that took her breath away. Kakashi picked up on it in an instant.

'You ok?'

Sakura struggled to reply still trying to catch her breath.

'Yeah…Just a strange feeling.'

'Kind of like you breath being taken away?' Kakashi asked leaning in toward her.

'Yeah, how did you know?'

'Just an effect the Sharingan can have some times, kind of my body reminding me its there.'

Sakura closed her eyes and fumbled for the headband, yanking it back down.

'Do you mind if we stop now?' She asked quietly, fiddling with the fingerless gloves on her hand.

'It's ok; you won't be near exhaustion with it…' Kakashi said with a reassuring tone, but Sakura didn't feel all too reassured.

'I just want to stop ok?'

'Ok, just calm down a little…' Kakashi replied brushing the dirt off the pink training skirt.

'How can I be calm? It's not my body I'm putting strain on! If you got ill because…' Sakura clamped her mouth shut as her throat tightened, and tears threatened to make an appearance. Silence prevailed, until Kakashi sighed slightly before offering a gentle smile.

'I'm sorry, let's go back ok?'

Sakura sighed in relief and joined him as they began to walk back to the village.

* * *

'Lady Tsunade?' Shizune asked fretfully. 

Tsunade flicked her gaze up at the women from the paperwork infront of her.

'Yes.' She asked tiredly, beginning to shift through the papers once more.

'Erm don't you think we should perhaps help Kakashi and Sakura. I mean it looks doubtful their ever going to change back.'

Tsunade sighed and allowed her weight to fall back against the back of the chair.

'This is something they have to work out on their own, I can't change them back and what use is it if they don't discover this desire on their own?'

'I know it's just taking them a while.'

Tsunade smiled at Shizune's response.

'Well denial is a strong thing; we often ignore what's right infront of us.'

'Do you think they'll work it out soon?'

With another wicked grin Tsunade answered

'Eventually, they won't be able to ignore it.'

* * *

Sakura couldn't sleep. It was terribly annoying because she was exhausted but seemed incapable of drifting off to dreamland. No matter how many times she twisted around, sighed, shuffled and shifted she could not find a comfortable position to settle in to allow sleep to take over. She growled and sighed pathetically for the hundredth time when she heard a soft noise. 

She stilled and strained to identify the noise that was coming from the other side of the door. It sounded suspiciously like someone trying to start up the gas for a cooker. Sakura's curiosity got the better of her and she slid out of the bed. She crept to the door, and gently pushed it open.

Only one soft light was illuminating the kitchen, and it revealed a small figured crouched infront of the cooker repeatable clicking at the gas switch. Sakura had to contain a giggle as the figure jumped at the ring finally lighting up. The petite figure straightened and turned to regard Sakura.

'Hope you found that funny.' Kakashi grumbled regarding the pink locks in his fingers, checking none had been singed.

'Hilarious.' Sakura giggled padding toward him.

'What are you doing?' She asked bemused.

He sighed and moved to pour more milk into the pan, and to grab another mug.

'Hot chocolate.' He stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sakura raised a silver brow as she looked down at him.

'It always helps me sleep.' He explained finally before turning to the pan to stir the milk.

'Ah, you can't sleep?' She asked even though it was obvious.

'No, and by the looks of it neither can you.' He answered eyeing the milk.

'My mum always makes me hot chocolate when I get home from a mission.' Sakura said fondly, moving to lean against the counter next to Kakashi. Kakashi gave a warm look in response, before moving to tip teaspoons full of chocolate powder into the two mugs.

Sakura smiled as she watched him turn off the gas and grab the handle of the pan, gentle pouring the contents into the two mugs.

After throwing the pan into the sink he pushes the mug toward her. Sakura's smile widens as she takes the hot mug in her hands.

'Thanks.' She says softly, and watched as Kakashi nods in response. He pads toward the sofa and Sakura follows quietly. Just as both get seated Kakashi jumps up again.

'Oh, almost forgot.'

Sakura throws him a slight look of confusion as she watched him rummage through the fridge. Just as Sakura thought the fridge was beginning to swallow him he emerged, with a triumphant look on his face, holding a bottle of whipped cream.

Sakura let out a low laugh as he marched back to the sofa.

'It's not the same without it.' He stated as he began to douse his mug with the cream, he quickly attacked Sakura's mug before she could protest.

'Hey that's enough do you want me to get fat! Or more to the piont you to get fat?!' She laughed trying to pull the mug out of reach.

'I don't mind gaining an extra few pounds.' He said with a smile playing on his lips.

'Well I do, so go easy on that stuff.' Sakura retorted, a laugh still tangled in her throat.

'You would just have to train a little harder, work those love handles off.' Kakashi joked.

Sakura wanted to slap him all over again, how could he insult her but she still find it funny. To her horror she realized she actually liked it. She actually enjoyed his teasing, and found herself wanting him to do it more often. Before she realized what she was doing she grabbed the cream and squirted it onto of the pink hair infront of her, and grinned as she sprayed it onto his face and down his back. She could despair about the damage it was probably doing to her skin and hair later, right now it was just too funny.

Kakashi's hand along with his mug froze midway between the table and his mouth. He made a small shocked laugh before placing the mug back down and regarding Sakura.

Sakura grinned she was in for it now.

'Oh, your going to wish you hadn't done that.' Kakashi said before grabbing at the can of whipped cream.

Sakura through herself back and used her long arms to hold the can above her head, and out of Kakashi's reached. He made a few more futile attempts to grab at it, then with a feminine growl sat back on his heels. Sakura beamed at him through the dim light, she was winning for once, too bad it was only because she was in his body.

Kakashi appeared to have a light bulb moment as he fixed a wicked grin at Sakura. Before Sakura knew what was happening she felt herself curl into a ball reflexively, trying to get away from the sensation of Kakashi tickling her. She was laughing too much to really think of a plan to get away, and she was in too much of a muddle to register Kakashi yanking the can out of her grasp.

She gasped as the cold cream sprayed onto her, she grabbed at his wrists in an attempt to stop him, but it didn't stop the onslaught of whipped cream. She did all she was able to do, she rolled. They landed with a loud thud on the floor, Kakashi underneath Sakura as she reclaimed the can and sprayed it at him. The can sputtered its dying gasps and Sakura shook it violently but to no avail.

She threw the can to the side and looked down at the frazzled cream covered copynin. Both were breathing heavily and regarding each other quietly. Sakura allowed herself to think of all the things Kakashi was to her, to everything she felt around him. She forgot that it was her own face she was staring down at, she forgot she was in his body and he was in hers. All she could seem to think of was how much she wanted to…

She felt herself leaning down, her eyes dangerously close to closing. She stopped when their noses barely brushed holding herself still relishing in the closeness. She took in the glazed expression in green eyes and the soft exhale of breath on her lips. He was so close.

It was then both of them seemed to snap back to reality. Green eyes widened and Kakashi quickly turned his face away, Sakura shot up onto her feet and moved back a few paces.

'I'm sorry; I don't know what that was.' Sakura whispered apologetically looking down at the ground.

Kakashi sat up slowly looking at the discarded mug on the coffee table.

'Don't worry, the sooner we change back the better.' He replied.

'We really should get cleaned up; you can use the shower first.' He said still refusing to look at her. Sakura nodded, getting up to shakily walk to the bathroom.

As soon as she was inside she let the breath she had been holding, and sank to the tiled floor, letting out a frustrated whisper.

'Smooth move Haruno.'

* * *

**Hello my lovelies, Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!! I was going to try and get this out for Christmas day, but well didn't manage it. So here it is my late Christmas present for you. Hope you enjoyed it please read and review! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

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Sakura really didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't know if she could face seeing Kakashi last night. The whole cream debacle had left her feeling somewhat out of sorts. She really didn't want to endure the awkward talk that was probably to follow. It wasn't that she hadn't liked being close to him, it would be a lie to say she hadn't. But she had no clue how Kakashi felt. Did he enjoy spending time with her? She didn't dare to ponder whether he felt as strongly for her as she did for him, that was far too scary to contemplate.

She let out a loud exaggerated sigh and dragged the pillow over her head. She lay still and just as she felt herself being dragged back into sleep, there was a rather annoying and persistent knock on the door. Sakura decided that perhaps if she ignored it, it would simply take the hint and go away. What she hadn't taken into account was that Kakashi never got any hints she'd thrown at him.

Just as the knocking stopped and Sakura though she'd won, Kakashi came barrelling into the room and opened the curtains.

Sakura winced and hissed slightly as she covered her eyes from the light.

'Come on time to get up, Tsunade has summoned us, did you just hiss at me?'

Sakura stared blankly at him for a moment, trying to blink the haze of sleep away.

'She what...why...?' Sakura muttered clawing for a pillow.

Kakashi spotted her trying to burry herself in the bed covers, and grabbed her arm.

'Oh no you don't.'

Sakura weakly tried to shake out of his grasp, but felt she had no energy as her pulled her up into a sitting position.

'Come on, we can't keep Tsunade waiting.'

'What gives? You've never worried about being on time before, in fact you seem to go out of your way to be late.'

Sakura said trying to rearrange the silver locks in front of her eyes.

'Exactly, that's why were already late.'

Sakura shot up suddenly awake. She knew how bad her teachers mood could get when people were late, especially Kakashi.

'We need to go!' She cried as she pushed Kakashi toward the bedroom door.

'I know but someone was lazing around in bed.' Kakashi said giving her a sly glance.

Sakura clipped him around the head as she gave him one last push out the door.

Kakashi gave the bedroom door and amused glance, before it flew open again with a messily dressed Sakura.

'You could at least make an effort to make me look more presentable.' Kakashi said as Sakura grabbed his arm, and dragged him to the front door.

'There isn't enough time and beauty products in the world.' Sakura replied sarcastically.

'Ohh harsh.'

* * *

'Why is it that you are incapable of being anywhere on time?! I don't give you a time for you to just to ignore it!'

Sakura flinched as the volume of screaming increased, and as Tsunade's fist slammed down on the desk. She glanced at Kakashi who, as always looked as cool as a cucumber.

'Well you see Tsunade, I tried to get here on time but Sakura here refused to get out of bed. You know I tried my best to wake her up, but she just kept trying to hit me. Disrespectful really isn't it?'

Sakura wanted to throttle him, she stared at him opened mouthed as he smirked at her.

'You lying little git!'

'Right at this moment I don't care who's, fault it is, just shut up!'

Kakashi and Sakura both promptly shut up as Tsunade glared daggers at them. She took a few moments to calm herself before her composure returned.

'Well I see you're still not yourselves.'

'Really? What gave it away?' Sakura asked huffily. Tsunade smirked as what looked like Kakashi rolled their eyes and pouted slightly.

'So you put any more thought into what might be your common goal?' She asked calmly.

'We've thought of everything, and nada!' Sakura cried throwing toned arms into the air.

'Really you've thought of everything?' Tsunade asked craftily.

Sakura growled at the extremely irritating response, and Kakashi gave Tsunade a questioning look.

'Well I guess you should get back to it.' Tsunade said, waving her hand toward the door. Sakura and Kakashi both began to drudge toward the door.

'Let me know when you figure it out, oh and Kakashi a word.'

Sakura whirled around giving Kakashi a worried look. He nodded and gave her a reassuring smile. A quick look in Tsunade's direction showed her looking expectantly at her. She let out a small eep and rushed out the door.

Kakashi watched her go before he turned back around to regard Tsunade.

'So.'

'So, what?'

'How's it been?' Tsunade queried.

'What being a teenage girl? Confusing and a little bit oh I don't know horrific.' Kakashi replied. Tsunade's grin increased.

'Not exactly what I meant. You known Kakashi, we both know what your common desire is, why keep denying it?'

Kakashi gave her a dark look.

'I can assure you I don't know what...'

'Oh come on, stop lying.'

'Alright alright. It may be something I want but I can guarantee she won't, so it can't be the common goal.' Kakashi answered tiredly.

'How do you know?'

Kakashi gave Tsunade a look as if to say 'are you kidding me?'

'Oh don't go all no confidence on me.' Tsunade joked.

'I am not, I'm just saying...' Kakashi muttered feeling slightly as though he was being teased.

'You know, you don't see how she looks at you.' Tsunade said seriously, a small smile still playing on her lips.

'Which is now kind of weird because she's actually looking at herself.'

Kakashi gave her an exasperated look.

'That was almost thoughtful. But trust me however those looks appear that can't be it,'

'So you're telling me that with all the time you been stuck together like this, you've never had any ermm moments?' Tsunade asked carefully.

'What? No, no of course not!' Kakashi replied a little outraged and flustered.

'Why did that no sound like a yes.' Tsunade asked laughing.

Kakashi gave her one of his best dirty looks before turning on his heel.

'We've swapped bodies, its sick and wrong and...If there's nothing else I've got to go.'

Just as he was half way through the door he heard Tsunade call after him.

'Just think about what I said!'

* * *

'What did Tsunade want to talk to you about?' Sakura asked conversationally. Kakashi's interest in the paperwork in front of him didn't waver.

'Nothing much, just something about an old mission.'

'Oh.'

Sakura didn't know how to respond to that; his noncommittal answer didn't give her much to go on for further conversation.

What was puzzling her most was that not a word had been said about the night before. But the more she thought about it, the more she supposed Kakashi wasn't the type to talk about feelings or awkward situations that may have feelings involved. She regarded him carefully out the corner of her dark eye. He seemed just that little bit tense, and he hadn't really spoken since they had come back from Tsunade's office. She thought perhaps this was due to the previous night, but then again maybe she was reading into this too far.

I mean perhaps he didn't even care about what had happened; maybe he saw it as a weird moment that didn't amount to much. Perhaps she was just making it a bigger thing than it actually was?

'Kakashi?' She asked apprehensively.

He still didn't look at her but made a small noise to indicate he was listening.

'Are you ok?

This time he did turn and look at her, looking slightly confused.

'Yeah, why?'

'You just seem a bit tense; I was kind of worried I've done something to upset you.' She laughed nervously and avoided the green eyes that now stared at her.

He seemed to be quiet for a long time, in Sakura's opinion what felt like an eternity.

'No, You haven't done anything don't worry.'

He gave her a small smile before returning his attention back to the pile of paperwork in front of him. Even though Sakura believed he wasn't mad at her, she still felt as though something was troubling him. Best not to dwell on it she thought.

'That doesn't look very interesting.' She commented looking at the pile in front of him.

He put the pen down and nodded, his slim shoulders sinking in defeat.

'It's not interesting, in fact it's awful, I've gone through less painful torture.' Kakashi said pushing the papers away with a rather disgusted look.

'Come on, let's go do something fun!' Sakura suggested quickly.

'I thought you didn't want to go out in public like this?' Kakashi questioned dryly, as he emphasised the point by waving his hand toward his appearance.

She had forgotten about all that for a moment, all she really had been thinking about was cheering him up. She supposed they would be ok, they had fooled plenty of other people that they were their normal selves right?

'I know but, we've been ok so far right? And you wanted to get out the other day. Come on it's no good us being cooped up.' Sakura explained.

Kakashi gave her a tired look.

'Just for a little while, you look as though you need a break.' She assured already standing up and offering him a hand.

He looked at the hand thoughtfully for a moment, as though it may bite him before grasping it, and allowing himself to be pulled from the soft sofa.

'Good lets go.'

It was relatively busy in town, what with it being a Saturday night and all. Everyone seemed to be out and enjoying themselves, which lifted Sakura's spirits considerably. She only hoped it was lifting Kakashi's as well.

Where do you want to go then?' Sakura asked cheerfully, looking down at the petite figure beside her.

'I don't mind, you decide.' Kakashi answered plainly.

Sakura wanted to growl in frustration at his unenthusiastic answer.

'Ok...there looks as good a place as any!' She cried, dragging Kakashi to the nearest bar. It was crowded and the atmosphere was thick and pleasant.

Sakura quite suddenly realised she looked old enough to drink. Hell in this body she had been old enough to drink for some years, and she tried to hold back the feeling of joy knowing she wouldn't be refused being served alcohol.

'I'll get you a drink.'

She shouted to Kakashi over the noise of the pub, and gave a slight nod and watched her disappear to the bar.

He ran his hand through pink strands tiredly. He felt worn down, and his talk with Tsunade had left him unsettled. In all truthfulness Tsunade had been right about his feelings, but how Sakura felt he couldn't begin to imagine. Of course she liked him, but as a good friend or perhaps a strange uncle. He shuddered at that thought.

He tried desperately to forget the previous night's mishap, how close she had been, how close they had been...

As hard as he tried to dispel the image from his mind it was no use, as Tsunade's claims of lingering looks Sakura gave him only troubled his mind further. What if she did want more beyond their platonic friendship? Would he be able to give more?

No. He knew he couldn't. He would only let her down, he was far too jaded to use to looking out for himself, how could he possibly do anything other than disappoint and hurt her if he tried to move into something more with her.

His despairing thoughts spiralled around his mind in a chaotic whirl, and he began to worriedly look for Sakura. His search was abruptly cut short when he felt a large hand slap soundly across his backside.

Now Kakashi had never been a fan of people invading his personal space, no matter how close they were to him, never mind strangers publicly harassing him. He whirled around quickly giving a dark look to a tall blonde man stood behind him grinning.

'Alright darling, hows about we have some fun?' He drawled still grinning.

Kakashi gave the man before him a once over, he was tall about 6 foot, with dark blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. In fact Kakashi had to admit he wasn't bad looking. Too bad he was a pig and hitting on a man in girls body.

Kakashi gave him his best dismissive look and wrinkled his nose in annoyance.

'How about no.' He answered sharply, and began to look for Sakura again.

'Aw come on darling, how about a dance?' The blonde drawled again, stepping up to block Kakashi's view. Kakashi cringed, he really hated when people used the word darling to chat people up, it always came out sounding common and nowhere near as flattering as it was meant to.

'No, please scurry back from whatever hole in the wall you came from.' Kakashi grumbled looking away again, with obvious disinterest.

'No need to play hard to get, I only want one dance.' The blonde said a little more firmly, touching Kakashi's slender arm. Kakashi quickly snatched the limb back toward his body. _At least he didn't saying darling._Kakashi thought.

'Come on darl.'

_Never mind._

'Look you simple minded twat. I'm going to make this as simple as possible, I do not want to dance with you, nor do I want to talk to you, look at you or in fact breathe the same air as you.' Kakashi snapped before pushing past the stunned blonde and toward a mop of unmistakeable silver hair.

He must have been close enough to reach out an arm and tap Sakura on the shoulder, when a sharp and practiced tug on his hair dragged him painfully backwards.

'Slag!' A shrill voice shrieked.

Kakashi untangled the hand from his hair and stumbled back to see a very drunk and very angry brunette girl.

'Excuse me?' He gasped rubbing the back of his head. The brunette took a step toward him, pointing perfectly manicure nails at him.

'I saw you trying to get with my boyfriend, but he's with me so back off!' She screeched again.

Kakashi's eyes drifted to a sheepish looking blonde behind the girl.

'Trust me your welcome to him, he's not my type!' Kakashi cried exasperated. The brunettes face turned angry once more.

'What you saying? That he's not good enough for you, that you think you can do better or something?'

Kakashi really couldn't believe it, how was he to win this one?

'No, I mean yes, I mean look he came on to me.' He tried backing up from the dangerous looking nails.

'Whatever! Like he would come on to you, mighty high opinion of yourself you have don't ya?'

Kakashi knew this was one battle he was going to lose, so he did all he could think of. Get reinforcements.

He snagged Sakura's elbow and yanked her back out of the queue.

'Hey! Do you know how long I've been waiting there? I was next as well now were going to have to wait all over again.' Sakura whined sharply at Kakashi, who was trying to turn her attention to the irate woman.

'I really think we should just go somewhere else.' He muttered urgently.

'You're not going anywhere till we sort this out!' The brunette shouted, whilst crossing her arms and shaking her head to the side viciously. Sakura gave her an unimpressed look before crossing her own arms.

'And what would you be?' She asked fixing a dark glare on the girl.

'I would be the girlfriend of the guy your girl here has been trying to steal.' She hissed gesturing to the blonde behind her. Sakura gave the blonde a quick glance before returning her attention to the girl.

'I don't think so somehow, she goes for real men, not guys who hide behind girls for protection.' Sakura stated. She immediately thought that hiding behind a girl was what Kakashi was also doing right now, but she would let him off.

'Well I can tell you he's the real deal.' The girl shouted stepping menacingly closer to Sakura, looking up at the one visible eye.

'Yeah about as real as those talons and the dead ferret on your head.' Sakura spat back.

Kakashi felt himself getting even more worried now; surely Sakura wouldn't forget she was in a man's body and try to hit this girl, would she? Who was he kidding this was Sakura, she had probably already forgotten.

The brunette gasped in visible shock, and the sheepish blonde finally got some guts and stepped forward.

'Hey man you can't talk to her like that.' He said with as much courage as he could muster, as he eyed the ninja head band across Sakura's left eye.

'Well grow a pair and tell her to back off!' Sakura cried.

Kakashi winced again; this wasn't going to end well. The last comment seemed to deeply offend the blonde and after a generous amount of shouting from his girlfriend he made the unfortunate decision to take a swing at Sakura. Sakura of course dodged with ease, and the blonde's fist soundly connected with the back of a dark haired man's head.

Kakashi then watched in horror as the dark haired man barrelled toward the blonde and proceeded to try to and pummel the younger man with as much violence as his drunken state would allow. Unfortunately due to this drunken state he also missed and hit another man. And thus started the chain reaction that resulted in a full bar brawl.

Kakashi quickly grabbed Sakura's elbow and both made a hasty retreat to the exit. It wasn't easy, they had to dodge screaming women, brawling men, flying drinks and the occasional chair or two, but they made it.

They didn't stop till they were on the other side of the street, where they sat down on a bench and witnessed the chaos they had caused.

'Kakashi I left you alone for two minutes and you flirted with some guy and got into a fight with his girlfriend which led to a riot.' Sakura said bemused.

'I did not flirt with him, that sleaze came on to me and that girl simple got the wrong end of the stick.' He grumbled.

Only a few more moments past before both burst into laughing.

Sakura held a hand to her eyes as she laughed, allowing herself to enjoy the hilarity of the moment.

'Here I am trying to cheer you up a bit, and I end up leading you into a full scale riot.' She giggled, glancing at him.

'Well you got me to laugh, that's cheery is it not?' He said laughter still present in his eyes.

Sakura nodded holding the smile and his gaze a few moments longer.

'Come with me, I want to show you something.' He said quietly, before pushing off the bench.

* * *

When Kakashi said 'Come with me I want to show you something.'

Sakura couldn't help the small stampede of butterflies that invaded her stomach. She didn't know why this simple statement made her feel so excited; he had shown her many things over the years. How to improve her aim. How to perform an endless number of jutsu. How to be faster and stronger. And how to deal with two psychotic teammates. And yet this time it seemed so much more personal and Sakura couldn't wait.

Of course the novelty of all this wore off when she found herself hiking up the side of the Hokage monument. She had a thin layer of sweat collecting at the edge of silver hair, and was desperately swatting away mosquitoes.

'This better be worth it.' She muttered under her breath.

Just as she thought she would collapse the terrain evened out and it became just that little bit easier to breathe. Her breath was sharply taken away though when she straightened and looked out at the view before her.

It was beautiful. The lights of the village twinkled silently below them, and the stars shone with dazzling clarity above them. The world seemed to slow considerably, and the silence enveloped them comfortably. It made Sakura forget all about the predicament they were in, and offered a calm reassurance.

'Wow.' She said quietly. Kakashi gave her a soft smile.

'I know. Whenever things get that little bit too crazy I come up here, and I feel better.' Kakashi said simply.

'I guess I've never slowed down to appreciate somewhere like this. It's always training or working at the hospital, or missions. Never stops does it?' Sakura replied still looking out on the town.

'Not often.'

Sakura turned to regard Kakashi who was watching her in a similar manner. It was at that moment that neither could bring themselves to look away. Everything seemed to be building up to this, that something was meant to happen and soon. Sakura felt that feeling in her stomach again. The same excitement in her stomach that she got when they had that cream fight. She didn't feel as though she was looking at her own face, all she saw was Kakashi.

She felt herself leaning in regarding his lips with great concentration, Kakashi didn't move. The perfect setting and atmosphere made her so sure this was the right thing, and that gave her the confidence she needed to finally close the gap between them. The kiss was gentle, quiet and undemanding, much like their surroundings. Sakura did have a brief flash of being weirded out that she was in fact kissing herself, but it quickly fled at the knowledge that Kakashi wasn't pulling away.

The kiss ended as softly and slowly as it began, and Sakura pulled back eyes still closed holding onto the lingering feeling. It was when she opened her eyes that she realised something was very different. She wasn't looking at herself, she was looking at a very confused looking Kakashi.

She quickly looked down at herself. Smooth slender feminine legs and arms, petite waist, pink hair. Yeah she was her alright. She let out a squeal of sheer delight and launched herself forward to wrap her arms around Kakashi's neck.

'Were us again!' She whispered happily in his ear. She felt his arms come around her back and squeeze a little bit. She leaned back from the embrace to smile at him. Kakashi grinned back, but something else lingered in his eyes.

Sakura didn't take much note to it as she leaned in to try and press another kiss to his lips, only to find him twist away.

'What?' She asked apprehensively.

'Sakura I don't think this is such a good idea.' Kakashi said avoiding her gaze. A cold feeling ran straight through Sakura.

'Why? It was obviously our common desire, we both want this so why?' Sakura asked a little flustered, it was so obvious why was he resisting it?

'Maybe now we do, but what about later on I don't want you end up realising you made a big mistake later on.' Kakashi explained leaning back from Sakura.

'I won't.' Sakura replied firmly, she was not prepared to just realise she wanted him, for him to say they couldn't be together.

'You can't promise that.' He said quickly still refusing to meet her eyes.

'No I can't, but why not enjoy what we can now?' Sakura cried starting to feel just that little bit desperate.

'What about everyone else, they won't be happy.' Kakashi said quietly. Sakura felt the anger rise in her chest further.

'Is that what it's about? That your worried people will make fun, are you embarrassed by me or something?!' Sakura shouted rising to her feet.

'No! I'm worried about you, if you'll be able to handle people looking down on you because you're with me.' Kakashi shouted back snagging her wrist.

'Why would I ever be embarrassed by you?' He added softly. He looked too good under the moonlight for Sakura to stay mad, especially seeing as his mask was down seeing all his features, and the sadness in his eyes made a lump rise in her throat. She knelt down on her knees before him, and captured his face in her hands.

She pressed a kiss to his lips soft at first but it soon gave way to need and passion, she gripped his hair more securely and opened her mouth allowing him access. His was hesitant but responded slowly returning the passion. She used her weight to push him down until he was lying flat on his back on the ground. His hands drifted slowly to her waist as the kiss deepened. It was when a tangled moan that managed to escape Sakura's throat that Kakashi pulled away sharply.

'I think you should go home and think this through properly.' He said slowly still beneath her.

She shook her head in disbelief.

'Didn't that just prove I don't need to think this through?' She asked almost fearfully. He was pushing her back gently and sitting up. It wasn't till he was on his feet that he spoke again.

'There's a big difference between lust and love.'

With that he was gone in a wisp of smoke leaving Sakura alone with her thoughts.

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**Alright my lovelies another chapter done and dusted. I hope you liked it Sorry it's taken so long I've had a lot on my plate. Please read and review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Soooo sorry its hideously late!**

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'Tea love?'

Sakura glanced at her mother tiredly, who was holding up a mug with a gentle smile on her face.

'What? Oh yeah sure.' Sakura answered with a sigh.

Her mother gave her a worried glance as she poured the tea.

'Are you alright, you've seemed a bit down since you came back from the hospital. Are you still feeling a bit worse for wear?' Her mother asked concerned.

Sakura held the mug between her hands, relishing in the warmth that spread to her fingers.

'Yeah just tired I guess.' Sakura answered with a measured tiredness in her tone.

Mrs Haruno sat down at the worn dinner table and regarded her daughter. She looked tired, run down as if something troubling was constantly on her mind. She could see the weight of whatever problem she carried in her eyes, and from the way her shoulders slumped. She seemed fragile and defeated, and that wasn't like her daughter.

'If it was something other than feeling a bit under the weather, you would tell me wouldn't you?' She asked reaching to hold her daughters hand.

Sakura could feel tears prick at her eyes. How she longed to tell her mother all about her miserable predicament, but she was just too scared of her mother's reaction. How exactly would she react? Would she be horrified? Shocked? Disappointed? Indifferent? Sakura could only guess that she wouldn't be too happy about it all.

'Yeah mom, I just need some rest I think.' She answered with fake cheer.

Mrs Haruno didn't look convinced but gave her daughters hand a comforting squeeze before getting up to resume cleaning the kitchen. Sakura dipped her chocolate biscuit into her tea with a thoughtful sigh when there was a knock at the door. She allowed her mother to answer it. She had a small flicker of hope that it was Kakashi, but that was quickly squashed when she heard the high smooth tone of Ino's voice. If anything she slumped a little bit more.

'God you look terrible.' Ino chirped as she took in Sakura's appearance.

'Nice to see you too.' Sakura replied as she stood up, dumped her mug in the sink and turned for the stairs.

'I mean seriously when did you last look in the mirror?' Ino asked following her up the stairs.

Sakura offered her only a growl as she walked into her room, and flopped down promptly on her bed. Ino followed her in before closing the door, and quickly turning around to face Sakura.

'Alright who is he?' Ino asked.

Sakura felt her heart stop momentarily and she burrowed her head further into her pillow.

'Who says there's a guy? Maybe I'm depressed because I have no guy.' Sakura grumbled, face still buried in her pillow.

'Because your acting the same way as you did when Saskue left, now come on I know there is a guy just tell my who it is.'

Sakura thought through the pros and cons of telling Ino. On the plus side she was dying to talk to someone about it, and Ino usually had decent advice especially when it came to men. On the downside there was always the possibility that Ino would tell just about everyone, she had certainly blabbed in the past. But Ino was her best friend; she would understand that this was too important to spread around right?

Sakura made up her mind and sat up on her bed, clutching her duvet to her. She regarded Ino closely before speaking.

'You have to promise you won't tell anyone Ino.' She said quietly.

Ino smirked and casually waved her hand.

'Yeah yeah come on get on with it.'

'No I mean it Ino. You can't tell anyone this is serious.' Sakura said more firmly. Ino let the smirk slip from her face.

'Alright I promise.'

'Well I have been seeing someone...well not really seeing more like had a brief encounter with someone I've known for a really long time, which is kind of what makes it weird and painful but amazing at the same time and...'

'Sakura take a breath I can't understand you.' Ino interrupted.

Sakura bit her lip and sunk back down on the bed, she was just going to have to tell her properly no more blurting.

'Ok. Well I kind of kissed someone who I have known for a very long time,'

'Oh my god it's Naruto isn't it?!' Ino shrieked, Sakura gave her an exasperated look.

'No! I would never think of kissing Naruto eww he like a hyperactive annoying younger brother.' Sakura shouted back.

'No it's definitely not Naruto... anyway now he's acting weird and avoiding me.'

Ino gave her a sympathetic look before answering.

'Well I hate to say it forehead but maybe he's not interested, you know with the whole avoiding you thing.'

Sakura shook her head slightly.

'No he's definitely interested, well at least I'm pretty sure he is I mean he kissed me and he wouldn't hurt me like that.' She replied slowly.

Ino regarded her friend quietly; an unhappy forehead wasn't a fun one.

'Sakura, who is it?' She asked as she sat down on the bed next to her best friend.

'You can tell me, my lips are sealed I promise.'

She had to tell her she knew she couldn't go through this alone and she knew it, there were certain things that Sakura just couldn't manage alone. Ask her to fend off a group of enemy nin and she would mange, ask her to heal a ridiculous number of injured ninja and she would cope, but ask her to deal with relationship problems and she would crumble.

'It's Kakashi.' Sakura said weakly. She watched Ino stare at her blankly, then observed the disbelief creep onto her features.

'I'm sorry did I hear you right, did you say that it was Kakashi?'

Sakura nodded in response.

'What really?'

Sakura rolled her eyes, how was it Ino could annoy her no matter what the situation?

'Really really, is it that hard to believe?' Sakura said a bit frostily.

'Well he is your sensei, and he's older than you I guess I just figured he'd be interested in someone more mature.' Ino trailed off as she saw the anger seeping into Sakura's features. She laughed nervously as Sakura looked ready to slap her.

'So you're saying that you didn't think he would waste his time with his immature student?'

'No no! I just mean I can see why he would like you, your pretty, have a decent personality and have freaky ninja strength. But I thought you know being your sensei he'd stay away, he could get a serious whipping from Tsunade you know.'

Sakura's angry fizzled out as she digested Ino's words.

'I know, that's why I need your help.' Sakura despaired pressing the pillow to her face once again.

'Alright start from the beginning.'

* * *

Sakura found days like these extremely annoying. She found it immensely unfair and sickening when the world appeared oh so very happy, when she was oh so very miserable. She felt as though the world and its inhabitants should share her pain not go on obliviously while she mopes about.

Sakura was truly at a loss of what to do or where to go. She had been sent home from training with Tsunade at the hospital due to her lack of concentration, she didn't want to go and see Ino just to listen to her telling her what an idiot she was being and she really didn't want to go home so her mother could try and pry for information whilst periodically giving her tea and biscuits, Sakura was sure she'd had enough tea in the last three hours to last her a life time.

It was sad but all she really wanted to do right now was talk to Kakashi, she hated to admit it but she missed him. She missed him teasing her; she missed trying to subtly extract little stories from his past, but most of all she missed him just being near.

She gave a loud sigh as she wandered through town lazily kicking the stones in her path, she made her way to an old looking bench and plonked herself down on it and surveyed the street in front of her. It was early evening now the sun was beginning to set giving everything an orangey glow. If everything had been fine and normal Sakura would have described it as romantic and lovely, but seeing as she was in a foul mood she decided garish and sickly was a better description.

She watched with small interest as people made their way home, or set out for a night on the town giving small peeved looks at the couples who passed her. Why did these people seem so happy? Sakura decided it wasn't healthy, and she dropped her head into her hands and regarded her feet as an exceptionally happy couple strolled on by.

'Stupid happy couples, don't they know over half of all marriages end in divorce, yeah that will really fix their wagon.' Sakura growled at her feet.

'Really over half? That's quite a depressing statistic.'

Sakura's heart almost stopped. She knew exactly who that voice belong to, and even though she was immensely happy just to have him near again she felt as though she should still be mad at him, after all he had hurt her.

'What do you want?' She mumbled miserably without lifting her head.

'That's no way to greet an old friend, not to mention your sensei.'

Sakura felt the hidden meaning behind that word sensei. It implied the way she felt, they way _they _felt was wrong. Sakura lifted her head to look at him. He looked the same way he always does, slightly ruffled but comfortable. Sakura wondered absently if he had always oozed confidence or had he learnt it?

'Well you haven't really been my sensei for a while now so it doesn't matter how I greet you.' She replied with as much conviction as she could manage.

He held her gaze for a long while, so long it was beginning to make Sakura feel the urge to squirm.

'Is there any reason you came over here and began badgering me? Because if there isn't I would really like to get back to staring at the floor, there is an interesting family of ants mooching about and watching them is kind of stress relieving.' Sakura said leaning back on the bench.

'Really? Well maybe I should watch I think I need some stress reliving of my own.' Kakashi replied before taking a seat next to Sakura.

He sat close enough so their arms were lightly pressed together, not enough to mean much but just enough to remind Sakura he was there.

'Did you really come over here to watch ants?' Sakura asked slowly looking straight ahead.

Kakashi turned his head slightly to regard her.

'No. Did you?'

Sakura could feel her cool aloof attitude slipping.

'No,' she said and began to take great interest in her nails. Neither said anything after that, both taking refuge in watching people pass along the street.

Just when Sakura thought she would die from the silence she felt Kakashi sigh slightly beside her.

'Sakura I...I.' He started before stopping sharply. Sakura turned her head to watch him, he looked frustrated and at a loss. Since when did Kakashi stutter? Sakura decided to let him suffer, it was him who need to talk not her she had already explained her feelings for him.

'Can we go somewhere a bit quieter?' He asked.

Sakura was a little taken aback by this request. Usually when a man said, 'can we go somewhere a bit quieter?' It was in some sexy scene in a movie where both characters had been shamelessly flirting, not when two people were barely talking as they sat awkwardly on a bench. Then again what did she have to lose?

'Erm ok.' She said shakily, Kakashi immediately got to his feet and looked down at Sakura.

'Come on my apartments not far.' He said motioning for Sakura to get up and follow.

Sakura felt her heart leap to her throat when he mentioned his apartment. She was going to be alone with him, in his apartment. As much as she relished in this idea her reason quickly followed and she felt like slapping herself to get a grip. After all, she had spent the last few days alone with him in his apartment. Not to mention they were still barely talking; it was unlikely he was taking her there for a steamy encounter like she hoped.

The journey to his apartment was quick and spent in silence, Sakura took in the surroundings and details of his apartment building even though she had memorised it before. She found it difficult to suppress the fluttering feeling in her stomach as she followed him through the door and flopped down on his sofa.

An unbearable silence followed, where Kakashi sat opposite her whilst looking mildly angry as he stared at the floor. Just as the silence was becoming too much he finally spoke up.

'Are you ok; you seemed a bit down on the bench out there.' He said as though he had no idea as to why she would be upset.

Sakura felt like taking off her shoe and viciously beating him around the head with it. But she kept her calm and just looked at him as if to say, 'are you a complete idiot?' Kakashi remained to appear oblivious. It was now obvious to Sakura that he was going to be an emotional log, and she really felt too tired to deal with him.

'Peachy.' She ground out as she stood with the intention of storming off dramatically.

'Sakura wait.' Kakashi called standing up.

She stopped half way to the door and turned around slowly.

'I'm sorry.' He said a little too quickly as if he didn't really want to hear himself saying it, well Sakura wasn't going to let him get out of it that easy.

'For what?' She replied sharply.

Kakashi swallowed and looked uneasy; good let him suffer thought Sakura.

'For the other night, I didn't think it would upset you so much, I...'

Sakura was definitely pissed off now.

'Didn't think it would upset me?! Are you really that dense? You really hurt me Kakashi.' Sakura shouted as she tried to hold back the tears the threatened to fall.

'I thought that maybe you were just having a lapse in judgement, you know from being switched back and being so happy.' Kakashi answered.

'Lapse in judgement! What gives you the right to dismiss my emotions?!' Sakura shouted and began wiping fiercely at her eyes as the tears finally spilled over.

'That's not what I meant!' Kakashi answered looking just a little bit more than flustered.

'Then what did you mean?!' Sakura said between sobs.

'I don't know.'

Sakura was definitely not impressed with that answer.

'You don't know? Genius shinobi my ass!' She shouted taking a threatening step toward Kakashi.

'You really have no clue do you? How you have survived with no people skills all these years I have no idea!' Sakura felt her strength being sapped from the emotional trauma and began to sink down to the floor.

Kakashi gave her a hurt look and began to walk toward her. Good, the closer he was the easier it would be to throttle him.

'Sakura.' He said gently, kneeling down and taking her hands in his own.

'Oh go away.' Sakura sniffled huffily.

'Sakura I really am sorry, I wasn't trying to upset you I just panicked, like you said no people skills. I was stupid.' He captured her chin and made her look at him.

Sakura felt her heart get caught in her throat, why did he always have to look so good?

'Yes you are stupid.' She stated simply.

Neither moved for a moment and Sakura delighted in how close he was. She chewed on her lip nervously as she reached for the edges of his mask and rolled it down slowly. Her eyes drifted down to his lips and absently remembered the kisses they had shared. She saw him part them slightly and tug on her chin whilst leaning into her.

The kiss was soft and apologetic; neither demanded more and simply allowed the kiss to linger. He pulled away from her slowly and offered a small smile.

'Don't think because you kiss me and bat those eyelashes that I will forgive you.' Sakura said firmly.

Kakashi's smile widened into a grin.

'Oh really, well I guess I will have to try harder.'

He pulled her in for another kiss; it wasn't soft like the last one but firmer and more passionate. Sakura was more than happy to allow him to take control of the kiss but the hurt he had caused lingered, her eyes still stung from tears and her throat still burned from suppressed sobs. She pulled away sharply and tried not to process the confused look on Kakashi's face.

'Please don't do that unless you mean it.'

The confusion on Kakashi's face intensified.

'Please I need to know where we stand.'

Kakashi sat back a little to regard her.

'I can't promise that I'll be everything you need, because I really doubt that I will be.'

Sakura closed her eyes, she could feel the rejection coming and with it the hurt. She turned her head away and made a move to stand.

'I'm not finished.' Kakashi said whilst gently pulling at her wrists to keep her in place.

'Like I said I can't be everything you need, but I'm willing to try.'

Sakura couldn't believe it. Had she heard him right? Did Kakashi Hatake just say something sweet? Was the sky still in place?

'Could you please say something, it's just that you're making me feel nervous just staring at me like that.' Kakashi said smiling nervously.

'Sorry I'm just shocked.' Sakura laughed. Kakashi pulled a face in response.

'Shocked, but happy.' Sakura said catching his face in her hands.

She felt like laughing and crying at the same time. She thought back to all the craziness of their last mission. Of the trials they had faced being switched, and the hilarity and anguish of the ordeal. Even though she was pretty sure she never wanted to be a man ever again, she was glad that jutsu had hit them because who knows maybe if they had never walked that mile in the others shoes they may have never discovered how they truly felt. For Sakura that made that bodged jutsu a blessing in disguise and she silently thanked the fates.

And although Sakura knew it was probably a bad idea venturing into her first serious relationship with a man 14 years her senior, and her teacher no less. But she couldn't help but let the triumphant smile spread across her face as Kakashi began to steer her toward the bedroom.

One thought did cross her mind though as he pushed her softly down onto the bed, they had to explaining to do when they next saw Tsunade and Naruto.

Oh well, they always said the best things in life were worth fighting for.

* * *

**My goodness I am so sorry for how horrendously late this is! I'm afraid exams snuck up on me and writing had to take a back seat. I hope you all enjoyed this story and thanks to all those who read and reviewed. I should be posting some more one shots soon and hopefully maybe another multi chapter. Tata for now! **


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